Ann Jennifer regains crown in National Motorcycle Racing Championship

Ann had previously won the title in 2018, but a couple of poor rounds cost her the championship last year

Chennai: Juggling racing and online exams, 19-year old Ann Jennifer (Sparks Racing) from Chennai kept her nerves to regain the title in the Girls category with her fourth consecutive win in the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the MMRT, here on Saturday. Ann Jennifer had previously won the title in 2018, but a couple of poor rounds cost her the championship last year.

Earlier, 40-year old Rajini Krishnan, a former multiple National champion, rolled back the years, and came up with a masterly display to win the premier Pro-Stock 301-400cc race. Equally impressive victors were Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) in the Pro-Stock 165cc race, and Bengaluru’s Ullas Santrupt (RACR Castrol Power Racing) and Navneeth Kumar (Rulexx Rockers Racing) from Puducherry in the two Novice (Stock 165cc) category races.

Reflecting on her Championship win, Ann Jennifer said: “It was tough to deal with back-to-back race weekends and my online exams. So, immediately after the races, I had to do my online exams. This weekend, I was nervous. I had bad starts in both the races, but managed to make up. Yes, I am extremely happy to win the championship for the second time.” She yet again had a poor start from pole position, but recovered to win easily from Gusto Racing pair of Lani Zena Fernandez and Arpitha Bhat, who both finished second and third, respectively, in the championship.

Participating in a National championship after eight years when he was busy racing superbikes on the international circuit, Rajini, who started from P3 on the grid, destroyed a quality field to win the six-lap race by the proverbial country mile. TVS Racing’s Jagan Kumar was second followed by Amarnath Menon (SpeedUp Racing). With two more races to be run on Sunday, Rajini is currently sixth in the championship, trailing leader KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) by 34 points.

Jagan had to fight hard for his win in the Pro-Stock 165cc race, being constantly harried by team-mate Ahamed as TVS Racing enjoyed another 1-2 finish with Kevin Kannan (RACR Castrol Power Racing) a distant third.

Bengaluru’s Abhishek Vasudev, winner of all four races in the previous round last weekend, assured himself of the title in the Open category of the TVS One-Make Championship organised by MMSC with two podium finishes and a fourth place in the three races run today. He took his tally to 145 points, well clear of Chennai’s Anup Kumar M (104) with a race to spare and a maximum of 25 points on offer on Sunday. Mangaluru’s Arpitha VM took the title in the Girls category of the same championship with a win in the last race.

The results (Provisional – all 6 laps unless mentioned):

Pro-Stock 301-400cc (Race-2): 1. Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power Racing) (11mins, 46.271secs); 2. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (11:48.020); 3. Amarnath Menon (SpeedUp Racing) (11:52.450).

Pro-Stock 165cc (Race-2): 1. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (12:13.737); 2. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) (12:13.810); 3. Kevin Kannan (RACR Castrol Power Racing) (12:20.027).

Novice (Stock 165cc, Race-2): 1. Ullas Santrupt (RACR Castrol Power Racing) (13:12.455); 2. Sudheer Sudhakar (Gusto Racing) (13:13.228); 3. Mohan Babu (Pvt, Chennai) (13:13.481). Race-3: 1. Navneeth Kumar (Rulexx Rockers Racing) (13:06.810); 2. Alwin Xavier (Rockstar Racing) (13:06.813); 3. Sudheer Sudhakar (Gusto Racing) (13:10.864).

Girls (Stock 165cc, Race-2, 5 laps): 1. Ann Jennifer (Sparks Racing) (10:55.561); 2. Lani Zena Fernandez (Gusto Racing) (11:05.599); 3. Arpitha Bhat (Gusto Racing) (11:26.174).

TVS One-Make Championship – Open (RTR 310, Race-2): 1. Kishoar VS (Coimbatore) (11:47.847); 2. Anup Kumar M (Chennai) (11:50.581); 3. Abhishek Vasudev (Bengaluru) (11:51.116). Race-3: 1. Anup Kumar M (11:46.186); 2. Kishoar VS (11:46.519); 3. Aditya Rao (Bengaluru) (11:48.880).

Novice (RTR 200, Race-2): 1. Mohan Babu (Chennai) (13:21.467); 2. Sudheer Sudhakar (Delhi) (13:21.457); 3. Jayant G Prathipati (13:21.468). Note: Dead-heat. Finish order decided by photo-finish. Girls (RTR 200, Race-2, 5 laps): 1. Arpitha VM (Mangaluru) (11:27.866); 2. Jagathishree (Chennai) (11:30.153); 3. Rakshitha S Dave (11:30.371).

Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup – Open (NSF 250R, Race-1): 1. Kavin Quintal (Chennai) (11:06.157); 2. Varoon Sadasivam (Chennai) (11:06.300); 3. Geoffrey Emmanuel (11:13.593). Novice (CBR 150, Race-1): 1. Vivek Rohit Kapadia (Belgaum) (13:25.235); 2. Shyam Sundar (Chennai) (13:25.251); 3. Rakshit S Dave (Chennai) (13:32.822).

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