Yuda Jinkawa of Japan won the MRF FF 1600 series race in the third round of the of MMSC FMSCI National Racing Championship at the MMSC race track in Sriperumbudur on Saturday.
The 1600 cc event saw a keen tussle between Yuda, Ashwin Sundar and Tarun Reddy. Eventually, Ashwin came second, followed by young Tarun, who has considerably impressed the racing fraternity in his three races so far.
Yuda’s experience and craft came in handy as the 23-year old staved off a staunch challenge from Ashwin and Tarun. For a while, the trio was dangerously close to each other, but towards the end Yuda eked out a clear lead and maintained it. “I was sure that I would win the race. The car was running good and I had absolutely no problems during the race,” said Yuda. The GT car racer from Japan has raced in the MRF 2000 series last year in India, and is now looking forward to breaking into Formula Series in Europe.
However, he still has a long way to go to challenge pole-sitter Ashwin, who has a 35-point lead over him
The incident-filled race saw the safety car being called in twice, in the third and eighth lap, where two cars had gone off the track. This further slowed the pace of race.
On the sidelines, Diljith Singh won the inaugural Toyota EMR race while Prashanth K claimed the Formula Swift segment. Seasoned racer S Narendran clinched the second race of the Formula 4 category.
Meanwhile Gaurav Gill made a resounding comeback into the Indian Touring Car category when he claimed pole ahead of rivals N Leelakrishnan and Arjun Balu.