Local lad Sandeep Kumar put the hammer down by grabbing pole position in the MRF F1600 as the third round of the MRF MMSC Fmsci Indian National Racing Championship commenced at the MMRT, here on Friday.
Sandeep, a practising corporate lawyer in Chennai, had finished first runner-up in the MRF F1600 last year, thus missing a ticket to the Mazda Road To Indy shootout, and is determined to go one better this time.
Sharing the front row with Sandeep is another Chennai driver, Nirmal Umashanker (1:40.310) ahead of Goa’s Keith D’Souza (1:40.069) while championship leader 19-year old Ashwin Datta who had won all the three races in the previous round in Coimbatore, will start eighth on the grid after posting a best time of 1:40.685.
The results (qualifying): MRF F1600: 1. Sandeep Kumar (1:39.999); 2. Nirmal Umashanker (1:40.045); 3. Keith D’Souza (1:40.069).
Indian Touring Cars: 1. Arjun Narendran (Arka Motorsports) (1:52.053); 2. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) (1:52.350); 3. Ashish Ramasamy (Arka Motorsports) (1:53.177).
Indian Junior Touring Cars: 1. Nikunj Vagh (Team N1) (2: 04.493); 2. Chrys D’Souza (Unimek Racing) (2:06.663);3. A.S. Prabu (Arka Motors) (2:06.684).
Super Stock: 1. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) (1:58.143); 2. Abhinay Bikkani (Race Concepts)(1:59.945); 3. K. Srinivasa Teja (Performance Racing) (2:00.026).
Esteem Cup: 1. S Vinod (Team N1) (2:01.642); 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) (2:02.600); 3. Alisha Abdullah (Infinite Piston) (2:06.878).
Volkswagen Ameo Cup: 1. Dhruv Mohite (1:54.713); 2. Saurav Bandyopadhyay (1:55.197); 3. Anmol Singh Sahil (Ghaziabad)(1:55.326).
