Glory for Hyderabad Racers at Coimbatore

Hyderabad racers Rahil Pillarisetty and Mohammed Zubair delivered strong performances at the Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship in Coimbatore, with multiple podium finishes and a lead in the championship standings

By Praharsha Majeti

Hyderabad: The Round-2 of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2025 unfolded at the beautiful Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore, with over 150 entries across various categories from August 1 to 3.

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Hyderabad racer Rahil Pillarisetty of Team RACR Castrol Power1, competing in the Pro-Stock 301–400cc category, started the race weekend with a bang by securing 1st position in the qualifying session on Friday with a stunning lap time of 1 min 10.972 sec around the 2.3 km Kari Motor Speedway—giving him a strong hold over the two upcoming races of the weekend.

In Race-1, Rahil had an amazing launch from the starting grid and quickly entered a strong battle with Johann Reeves Emmanuel (Chennai) of Team Motul KTM Gusto Racing India and defending champion Sarthak Chavan (Pune) from the mighty Petronas TVS Racing team. The trio exchanged positions multiple times over 10 laps trying to secure the top spot on the podium.

In the first half of Race-1, Rahil exhibited great racecraft and composure battling Johann, who had a clear advantage in straight-line speed with his KTM RC 390 over Rahil’s Yamaha R3. The frequent position exchanges pulled Sarthak and Rajini Krishnan (multiple-time national champion) into the fight for podium contention in the second half. The intense contest pushed all four riders to make braking errors, and Rahil eventually had to settle for 3rd position—bagging valuable points to keep his championship hopes alive.

In Race-2, Rahil had a titanic tussle with three young and talented riders—Sarthak Chavan (Pune), Rakshith Dave (Chennai), and Chiranth Vishwanath (Chennai) of Team TVS Racing—until the penultimate lap of an exhilarating 10-lap race. Learning from Race-1, Rahil kept his cool, avoided mistakes, and made a few precise, clinical overtakes on the TVS Racing trio to complete the race in 1st position—a significant boost in his title campaign.

Rahil said, “It was not an easy race with constantly varying weather conditions and a tough fight from my opponents in Team TVS Racing and Gusto Racing India. I was super agile in the corners and gained a few extra milliseconds, but we are slightly struggling with straight-line speed, especially compared to the KTM machine from Gusto Racing India. I tried my best to avoid mistakes. At one point, I braked so late that I ran off track and lost positions. All I wanted was to finish and gather a few precious points for the championship. In Race-2, I had a better start, kept my rhythm, and stayed ahead despite pressure from Sarthak and Rakshith. I’m very happy with the weekend—3rd in Race-1, 1st in Race-2—and I’m now leading the overall championship.”

Another racer from Hyderabad, Mohammed Samrul Zubair of Motul Sparks Racing, competing in the Super Stock 130–165cc Intermediate category, had an impressive qualifying session, securing 2nd position on the grid with a lap time of 1 min 25.517 sec around the KMS track. Zubair had a clean Race-1, securing 1st place, and followed it up with a 2nd-place finish in Race-2.

Zubair also competed in the TVS Apache RR310 Expert category, where he qualified 7th with a lap time of 1 min 17.927 sec. In Race-1, Zubair unfortunately crashed due to another rider’s mistake but bounced back strongly to win Race-2—making a bold statement with his resilience.