CHENNAI: Teenagers put on a memorable show as they took the honours in both the premier categories, the MRF F2000 and F1600, as the first round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2025 concluded at the Kari Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Two 16-year-old drivers, Bengaluru's Ishaan Madesh and Arjun Chheda from Pune won a race apiece in the MRF Formula 2000 class with the latter completing a double, having won Race-1 on Saturday.
In the MRF Formula 1600 category, two Bengalureans, Arjun Nair, 20, and Nigel Abraham Thomas, 19, won one race each. All the races were highly competitive with more than their share of wheel-to-wheel racing.
Another Bengalurean 15-year-old Bhuvan Bonu (MSPORT) was equally impressive winning the Formula LGB 1300 race in the morning as he topped both Open and Junior classes. He was leading the next race in the afternoon when rains forced cancellation.
Meanwhile, defending champion, Mumbai's Biren Pithawalla (Team N1 Racing), denied former National champion Arjun Balu (Coimbatore) a triple crown by pulling off a dramatic win in Race-3 of the Indian Touring Cars category. Balu, having won the two previous races with ease, suffered a misfortune with his Race Concepts-prepared Honda City IVTEC misfiring, forcing him to slow down when in the lead. Biren, driving a VW Polo, though nursing a turbo issue, zipped past Balu for a deserved win.
Further down the grid, Bengaluru's Rithwik Thomas (Race Concepts) achieved a grand treble by winning all the three races this weekend in the Indian Junior Touring Cars category while Sri Lankan Kesara Godage completed a double in the Super Stock class winning two of the three races with Guwahati's Krishanu Dutta Bhuyan (Zion Racing) topping the other.
Buzzing Hornet team-mates Aditya Patnaik (Mumbai) and Aman Nagdev (Noida) won a race apiece in the Volkswagen Polo Cup with the latter scoring a double, having won Race-1 on Saturday. Joining the pair on the podium in both races today was their team-mate Pratik Sonawane from Mumbai.