Ishaan Madesh and Sai Shiva Sankaran crowned national car racing champions
Teen racers Ishaan Madesh and Sai Shiva Sankaran clinched the Formula 2000 and Formula 1600 titles at the Indian National Car Racing Championship 2025 in Chennai. Other winners included Biren Pithawalla, Joel Joseph, Aman Nagdev and Tarushi Vikram across categories
Chennai: Bengaluru’s 17-year-old schoolboy Ishaan Madesh and Pune teenager Sai Shiva Makesh Sankaran won the premier MRF Formula 2000 and Formula 1600 titles respectively as the fourth and final round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2025 concluded at the Madras International Circuit here on Sunday.
Ishaan, the reigning National Karting champion, finished the weekend and the season with a triple crown as he overcame stiff resistance from Pune’s Arjun Chheda, who finished runner-up in the championship standings. Sai Shiva won one of the three races to emerge National champion, sealing the title with a race to spare.
Biren Pithawalla, the 44-year-old businessman from Mumbai, survived a gamut of emotions and frustrations beginning with misbehaving brakes, drop in power and a deep cut in his right forefinger through the weekend to retain the title in the premier Indian Touring Cars category. Three podium finishes this weekend fetched the N1 Racing driver enough points to edge out Lonavala’s Dhruv Chavan by 10 points in the championship stakes.
Even as Pithawalla clinched the title, his main contenders Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) and Ritesh Rai (Buzzing Hornet) fought their own battles, with the former finally winning a race, the last of the season, but managing only a P4 in the points standings, behind Rai who otherwise dominated the season with six wins.
Coimbatore’s 80-year-old Vidyaprakash, fighting off a problematic back, did just enough to win the title in the ITC 1625 class, holding off his grand-nephew Nikanth Rambabu in the two-car field.
Bengaluru’s Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts) had the luxury of sitting out the last race today after sealing the Indian Junior Touring Cars championship with a fourth-place finish in the previous outing this morning. Thrissur’s Diljith TS (DTS Racing) dominated the Super Stock category with eight wins in nine starts to win the championship despite missing the first round.
In the drama-filled Formula LGB 1300 category, Joel Joseph (DTS Racing) from Ernakulam clinched both the Open and Junior crowns with three podium finishes over the weekend. Both races today dished out plenty of thrills and excitement as Joel survived close battles that included his arch-rival and team-mate Vinith Kumar, who eventually settled for third spot in the points standings behind Navi Mumbai’s Aditya Patnaik (Momentum Motorsports).
Coimbatore’s Akshay Muralidharan enjoyed a large slice of luck which helped him win the title in the MRF Saloons category despite a non-finish in the final race, while young Tarushi Vikram (Chikkamagaluru) ended the season on a high, winning two of the three races which saw her finish third in the championship behind Mohammed Arafath (Chennai).
Aman Nagdev, a teenager from Noida, clinched the championship in the Volkswagen Polo Cup by winning the last race of the season, his sixth in 10 starts. He had won Saturday’s first of the four races which put him on the path to the title, and a second win today put him out of reach of the chasing pack in the race for points.
