Jaden Pariat, Abhay Mohan dazzle in MRF Formula races

CHENNAI: Teenagers Jaden Rahman Pariat from Shillong and Bengaluru’s Abhay Mohan came up with fine performances to claim top honours in the MRF single-seater categories on the first day of the fourth and final round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2024 – Powered by STORM-X at the Madras International Circuit, here on Saturday.

Seventeen-year-old Jaden set a scorching pace to score his eighth win in 10 outings from pole position in the MRF Formula 2000 race while Abhay, 16, was equally impressive in maintaining his unbeaten run in the MRF Formula 1600 category. Neither Jaden nor Abhay was seriously challenged in their respective races that were run concurrently.

Elsewhere, Mumbai’s Biren Pithawalla (N1 Racing) also notched his eighth consecutive victory in the premier Indian Touring Cars class, holding off Chennai ace Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing) who drove a fine race to finish second with a last lap overtaking of Ananth Pithawalla (N1 Racing).

Srinivas Teja (Performance Racing) and Balaprasath (DTS Racing) topped the Indian Junor Touring Cars and Super Stock categories in a race that saw its share of extremely close fights where a few cars exchanged paints.

Viswas Vijayaraj from Nellore led a podium sweep for DTS Racing, while also scoring his eighth win to take a firm grip on the title in the Formula LGB 1300 category. His team-mates Balaprasath (Coimbatore) and Diljith TS (Thrissur) came in second and third, respectively.

There was plenty of action in the Polo Cup which saw three of the six races scheduled being completed. All three races produced different winners underlining the competitiveness of the grid. Aditya Patnaik (Mumbai), Dhruv Chavan (Lonavla) and Romir Arya (Mumbai), the youngest competitor in this category, won a race apiece.

Meanwhile, Daiana Pundole, the mother of two from Pune, was in total command while winning the MRF Saloons race ahead of Chennai’s Anirudha Aravind and Arunshi Vikram from Chikkamagaluru.

The results (Provisional – all 8 laps unless mentioned):

MRF F2000 (Race-1): 1. Jaden Rahman Pariat (Shillong) (12mins, 49.153secs); 2. Chetan Surineni (Bengaluru) (12:54.889); 3. Tarun Muthaiah (Bengaluru) (13:13.928)

MRF F1600 (Race-1): 1. Abhay Mohan (Bengaluru) (14:00.541); 2. Zahan Commissariat (Mumba) (14:03.100); 3. Raaj Bakhru (Mumbai) (14:03.978)

Indian Touring Cars (Race-1): 1. Biren Pithawalla (Mumbai, Team N1) (15:22.533); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Team Performance Racing) (15:24.900); 3. Anant Pithawalla (Mumbai, Team N1) (15:25.874)

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-1): 1. Srinivas Teja (Chennai, Team Performance Racing) (15:38.598); 2. Nikung Vagh (Surat, Team N1) (15:55.340): 3. Dean Mascarenhas (Mangaluru, DB Motorsports) (16:13.472)

Super Stock (Race-1): 1. Balaprasath (Coimbatore, DTS Racing) (16:45.693); 2. Justin Singh (Gurugram Redline Racing India) (16:46.283); 3. Manan Patel (Mumbai, Redline Racing India) (17:00.886)

Formula LGB 1300 (Race-1, 5 laps): 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (Nellore, DTS Racing) (09:25.493); 2. Balaprasath (Coimbatore, DTS Racing) (09:26.828); 3. Diljith T. S. (Thrissur, DTS Racing) (09:27.460)

MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios) (Race-1): 1. Diana Pundole (Pune) (16:46.605); 2. Anirudha Aravind (Chennai) (16:50.194); 3. Tarushi Vikram (Chikkamagaluru) (16:53.548). All Redline Racing

Polo Cup (Race-1): 1. Aditya Patnaik (Mumbai) (15:35.929); 2. Ojas Surve (Mumbai) (15:39.574); 3. Dhruv Chavan (Lonavla) (15:40.330). Race-2: 1. Dhruv Chavan (15:35.029); 2. Ojas Surve (15:35.876); 3. Aditya Patnaik (15:36.524). Race-3 (10 laps): 1. Romir Arya (Mumbai) (19:22.798); 2. Ojas Surve (19:25.236): 3. Dhruv Chavan (19:28.045)