Chirag Ghorpade, the schoolboy from Bengaluru, and Coimbatore veteran Arjun Balu lit up the free practice sessions with some serious pace to kickstart the third round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2021 at the MMRT, here on Thursday.
Ghorpade, who heads the championship table, topped the two sessions in the premier MRF F1600 category with a best lap of one minute, 39.950 while his closest rival, teenager Shahan Ali Mohsin of Agra, posted the second-best time of 01:40.018.
In a league of his own
On the other hand, veteran Balu, piloting the Race Concepts-prepared Honda VTec, was in a league of his own in the Indian Touring Cars category. He was about a couple of seconds quicker than his nearest rivals, the Rayo Racing pair from Hyderabad Jeet Jhabakh and Ishaan Dodhiwala, both driving Volkswagen Polo.
Bengaluru’s Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) and Performance Racing’s Deepak Ravikumar of Chennai, set the fastest laps in the Indian Junior Touring Cars and Super Stock categories respectively.
Earlier, two teenagers from Bengaluru, Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsport) and Ruhaan Alva (MSport), topped the two practice sessions in the Formula LGB 1300 category.
In the 22-car Volkswagen Polo class, local challenger Sandeep Kumar set the fastest time of 01:55.657 over two sessions.
Haryana’s Justin Singh put in the quickest lap of the day in the MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios) with an effort of 02:03.391.
