Saishiva Sankaran and Bhuvan Bonu dominate opening round at Madras International Circuit

Teenagers Saishiva Sankaran and Bhuvan Bonu starred in the opening round of the MRF Indian National Racing Challenge 4W at the Madras International Circuit in Chennai on Sunday. Eighteen-year-old Saishiva completed a hat-trick of wins in the MRF Formula 2000, while 16-year-old Bhuvan won both MRF Formula 1600 races.

Sri Lanka’s Kaveen Diyyan Rajapaksa swept all three races in the Junior category of the Formula LGB 1300, and Viswas Vijayaraj returned a triple crown in the Formula LGB 1300 Open class. Ritesh Rai, T.S. Diljith and Pratik Sonawane each finished the meeting unbeaten in the Indian Super Touring Cars, Super Stock and Volkswagen Polo Cup categories respectively.

In MRF Formula 2000 Race-2 Saishiva Sankaran (Pune) led the podium in 20:11.403s, with Aditya Patnaik (Navi Mumbai) second in 20:13.709 and Krishay Gutte (Mumbai) third in 20:15.857. Race-3 saw Saishiva again first in 16:22.565, Aditya second in 16:27.649 and Swarnav Das (Pune) third in 16:33.095.

MRF Formula 1600 Race-2 was won by Bhuvan Bonu (Visakhapatnam) in 21:19.141, with Evan Shrawan (Mumbai) second in 21:47.811. In Race-3 Bhuvan finished first in 18:10.216, Gyan Satish (Chennai) was second in 16:22.952+1 lap and Shivansh Bejoy (New Delhi) third in 16:34.435+1 lap.

Indian Super Touring Cars produced two identical podiums as Ritesh Rai (Buzzing Hornet Motorsports) won Race-1 in 19:01.310, Aman Nagdev (Buzzing Hornet Motorsports) was second in 19:15.179 and Jeet Jhabakh (Buzzing Hornet Motorsports) third in 19:23.583. Race-2 again went to Ritesh in 19:05.125, with Aman second in 19:18.370 and Jeet third in 19:23.919.

Super Stock Race-1 placed T.S. Diljith (DTS Racing) first in 20:58.700, Deepa S. John (DTS Racing) second in 19:02.465+1 lap and Lal Kattikulam Bharathan (DTS Racing) third in 19:07.680+1 lap. Race-2 repeated a win for Diljith in 20:58.700, followed by Bharathan in 21:03.047 and Deepa in 19:21.307+1 lap.

The Volkswagen Polo Cup saw Pratik Sonawane (Mumbai) win Race-1 in 19:38.049 ahead of Neel Shah (Mumbai) 19:40.454 and Hitarth Bhatt (Ahmedabad) 19:43.247; Sonawane also took Race-2 in 19:39.604, with Neel second in 19:55.514 and Balaji Raju (Chennai) third in 20:00.495.

Formula LGB 1300 Race-2 Open concluded with Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) first in 22:21.644, Vinithkumar (DTS Racing) second in 22:24.307 and Liron Jaden Samuels (DTS Racing) third in 22:27.640, while the Junior class was topped by Kaveen Diyyan Rajapaksa (Momentum Motorsports) in 22:41.719, Abhijit Vadavalli (Momentum Motorsports) second in 22:51.719 and Aadam Junaid (Momentum Motorsports) third in 22:54.102. In Race-3 (7 laps) the Open order was Viswas first in 13:15.418, Liron second in 13:23.756 and Vinithkumar third in 13:24.135; the Junior 7-lap race was won by Rajapaksa in 13:36.878, with Shatveer (Meco Racing) second in 13:43.726 and Yash (Delta Speeds) third in 13:51.885.

The results published from the meeting are provisional; all races were 10 laps unless otherwise stated.