Brazilian driver Felipe Drugovich had the perfect ending to the 2017 MRF Challenge when he won the final two races at the MMRT in Chennai. This gave him 10 wins for the season out of a total 16 races. Both races saw Presley Martono and Rinus van Kalmthout finish on the podium. Martono beat van Kalmthout to second in the championship by 7 points.
In race three Martono again had a good start and led into the first corner with Drugovich and van Kalmthout slotting right behind. There was action again heading into turn two with Kurt Hill and Nazim Azman both retiring on the spot after colliding.
With Martono struggling on cold tyres, Drugovich pounced and went around the outside of the Indonesian driver at Anand’s corner on lap two to take the lead. With van Kalmthout also trying to find his way past, Drugovich pulled away at the front.
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With the championship wrapped up, the fight for second place continued between Martono and van Kalmthout. With two laps to go van Kalmthout tried to pass the Indonesian into turn seven but could not make it stick. Drugovich comfortably won with Martono fending off van Kalmthout for second place.
The final race of the season saw van Kalmthout start on pole alongside Drugovich. Van Kalmthout got bogged down at the start, allowing Drugovich to get a better start and lead into the first corner with Martono slotting in behind
Drugovich pulled away at the front and van Kalmthout and Martono battled for second. He comfortably crossed the finish line in first to cap a brilliant season for the young Brazilian. Van Kalmthout finished in second place ahead of Martono.
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The results (Provisional): MRF Challenge: Race three (20 laps): 1. Felipe Drugovich (Bra, 33:09.353); 2. Presley Martono (Ina, 33:20.422); 3. Rinus van Kalmthout (Ned, 33:21.398). Race four (20 laps): 1. Drugovich (30:08.812); 2. Kalmthout (30:13.094); 3. Martono (30:16.118).
Indian Touring Cars (Race two, 12 laps): 1. Ashish Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsports) (23:25.024); 2. B Vijaya Kumar (Prime Racing) (23:51.922); 3. D Vidya Prakash (Prime Racing) (23:58.350). Race three (Eight laps): 1. V Nikanth Ram (Arka Motorsports) (15:55.693); 2. C Raja Ram (Prime Racing) (15:59.000); 3. Biren Pithawalla (Team N1) (16:11.372).
Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race two, 11 laps): 1. Kamlesh Parmar (Team N1) (23:55.103); 2. Chrys D’Souza (Unimek Racing) (24:24.572); 3. Prabhu AS (Arka Motorsports) (24:24.812). Race three (Eight laps): 1. D’Souza (17:48.207); 2. Prabhu (17:48.434); 3. Nikunj D Vagh (Team N1) (17:49.100).
Esteem Cup (12 laps): 1. Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) (24:20.853); 2. Vinod S (Team N1) (24:33.727); 3. Archit Mylanda (Performance Racing) (25:06.829). Race three (Eight laps): 1. Rangasamy (16:21.542); 2. Vinod S (16:30.865); 3. Mylanda (16:43.432).
Super Stock (12 laps): 1. RP Rajarajan (Performance Racing) (24:55.565); 2. Srinivas Teja K (Performance Racing) (25:18.133); 3. Swajit Acharaker (Team N1) (23:38.158 + 1 lap). Race three (Eight laps): 1. Srinivas Teja K (16:52.869); 2. Acharaker (17:02.854); 3. Rajashekar R (Infinite Piston) (17:09.812).
Vidiem Superbikes Cup (Support race) – Race two (Eight laps): 600cc: 1.Siddhanth Koundinya (Bengaluru) (15:30.765); 2. Vishwadev Muraleedharan (Coimbatore) (15:39.311); 3. Ritesh Sapre (Mumbai) (15:45.182).