CHENNAI: Showing impressive pace, Hyderabad’s Rahil Pillarisetty (RACR Castrol Power1) qualified for pole position in the premier Super Sport 301-400cc Open class as the second round of the MRF Indian National Racing Challenge 2W – 2026 commenced at the Madras International Circuit, here on Friday.
The 28-year-old Rahil put in a hot lap of one minute, 48.806 seconds for pole position ahead of Chennai teenager Rakshith Dave (Petronas TVS Racing) and Bengaluru’s Savion Sabu (Mad Rabbit Racing). Rahil’s two arch-rivals, Sarthak Chavan (Pune), who is on a flight back from Europe, and Chiranth Vishwanath (Bengaluru), missed both practice and qualifying sessions.
In the Petronas TVS Racing One-Make Championship, Chennai’s Kamal Navas snatched the pole position in the Expert (Apache RR310) class followed by Bengaluru’s AS James. Completing the front row was another Chennai rider, Manoj Yesuadian.
Top results:
Super Sport 301-400cc Open: Rahil Pillarisetty (Hyderabad, RACR Castrol Power1) 1 min, 48.806 secs; Rakshith Dave (Chennai, Petronas TVS Racing), 1:49:071; Savion Sabu (Bengaluru, Mad Rabbit Racing), 1:50:162
Pro-Stock 200cc Open: Venkatesan Iyyappan (Chennai, M3 Torque Motorsports) 01:56.070; Mohamed Mikail (Thiruvallur, Team MRA) 01:56.562; Raj Kumar (Coimbatore, M3 Torque Motorsports) 01:56.826
Stock 301-400cc Novice: Anandhu KK (Chennai, Veedol C2 Raing) 02:02.528; Kavicholaiarasan (Pvt., Tiruchirapalli) 02:02.539; Rehbar Islam Baktoo (Srinagar, Motul Gusto Racing) 02:02.586
Petronas TVS Racing One-Make Championship: Expert (Apache RR 310): Kamal Navas (Chennai) (01:54.962); AS James (Bengaluru) (01:55.778); Manoj Yesuadian (Chennai) (01:56.008)
Women (Apache RTR 200): Poojitha Anil Kumar (Bengaluru) (02:14.923); Hannah Akkineni Joshitha (Hyderabad) (02:16.301); Drishya Nair (Pune) (02:16.939)