Hemanth bags two gold medals for 7th national title in 4 years

Touching speeds of 205.65kmph, the 31-year old Bengaluru-based rider won the above 1051cc class with ease, clocking 7.879seconds for a course of 302-metres astride a BMW, beating Baba Satagopan (8.263) to second and convincingly defeating darkhorse Hafizullah Khan who ended up third with a time of 8.362. 

Tuned by Sharan Pratap, who continued the legacy of popular Pratap Jayaram, Hemanth was astride a Black BMW and soon celebrated with a custom-made helmet and champion T-shirt. 

In the 850 to 1050cc class, Hemanth was on a green Hayabusa clocking 8.071 for his second gold of the day. Zubair Ali Jung came second in 8.202sec while Baba Satagopan was third in 8.306sec. 

Hemanth had won the National Drag Championship in the feature race of unrestricted foreign open class in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 besides winning the top-two classes above 1051cc and 850 to 1050cc in 2018 and two more gold in the same classes on Sunday to make it his seventh national title. The feature event, Unrestricted Foreign Open, was not run this year. 

"Winning can be an excellent form of motivation for a time, but the drive to be just a little bit better every single day can make you unstoppable," said Hemanth. 

In other classes, J Bharat Raj clocked 14.420 to win the gold in the 4stroke 165cc category beating PM Soorya to second and R Aravind Ganesh took third place. 

In the 361 to 55cc, former Racing champion Karthik Mateti of Hyderabad won the National title edging out Aiyaz while Thulsi Ram took third. 

In the 226 to 360cc class, PM Soorya too had a close finish over J Bharat Raj to win the national title. Shankar Guru took third place.