Hari Krishnan Rajagopalan of Team Honda Ten10 Racing team chalked up a fluent double in the Pro-Stock 165 class while Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) destroyed the premium Super Sport Indian category field as the curtain came down on the Rolon round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway, here on Sunday.
Hari Krishnan, the 22-year old from Chennai, nursing a “pumped” right arm that cramped his hand, fought and won a close battle with Vivek Pillai for a double following his win in the first race on Saturday.
Also scoring a double was 13-year old Aaron Gunawardena from Sri Lanka who won both the races in the Suzuki Gixxer Cup (Novice) category. Aaron, who participates in the Suzuki Asia Challenge (Underbone class), rode well to beat much-older competitors to mark his debut in the Gixxer Cup.
The day’s proceedings were highlighted by the Super Sport Indian race that saw Jagan off to flier from pole position and comfortably nursed his lead to the finish ahead of team-mate Harry Sylvester who benefitted when Saturday’s winner Deepak Ravikumar (Rajini Academy for Competitive Racing) crashed. In third spot was Sarath Kumar of Honda Ten10 Racing.
“I had a good start and opened up a big lead. As others behind me were fighting for positions, I could increase the lead and then eased off over the last five laps,” said Jagan who had finished second behind Ravikumar in Saturday’s race.
For Hari Krishnan, who recently bagged a podium spot in the Asia Road Racing Championship, it was a struggle in the Pro-Stock race that was run along with the Super Sport Indian. After exchanging leads with Prabhu Arunagiri (RACR), Hari Krishnan managed to get in front. Vivek Pillai too went past Prabhu in the last lap to bag the second spot.
“Because of the pumped arm, my right hand tended to become numb and I could hardly feel the brake pedal, but I somehow managed to hold on and win,” said Hari Krishnan.
Meanwhile, a couple of crashes late in the afternoon led to cancellation of the day’s last two races. Prativ Selvaraj, participating in the Suzuki Gixxer Cup Open, crashed at Turn-2 and was rushed to Ortho-One hospital in the trackside ambulance. He was subsequently discharged after precautionary x-ray and treatment.
In the next race (Honda CBR 250 Open), Rajiv Sethu of Honda Ten10 Racing suffered a hip injury following a crash at Turn-1 and was also rushed to Ortho-One hospital in the second ambulance. The race was red-flagged after six laps at which point Sethu was running second behind Abhishek V (Rock Star Racing).
With a minimum of two ambulances required to be present at the track as per safety norms, but only one available trackside, the officials decided to cancel the day’s remaining two races on grounds of safety.
