Double delight for Rajini Krishnan, Jagan Kumar

Rajini, 41, who made his National Championship debut back in 2003 and also forayed abroad for stints in Superbike racing, rolled back the years with two stunning performances while winning both the races in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc category for his team RACR Castrol Power Racing astride a Yamaha R3.

In both races, Rajini was in a league of his own. In Race-1, despite a poor start when he dropped from P2 to P7 in the first lap, he carved through the field in quick time and eventually won comfortably ahead of Hyderabad’s Rahil Shetty (Gusto Racing) and Bengaluru-based Anish Damodara Shetty (Race Concepts). In the next outing, Rajini was even more dominating while winning easily from last year’s champion KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) and Anish Shetty.

Similarly, Jagan, 31 was outstanding in repeating his Saturday’s victory in the Pro-Stock 165cc class by taking the top honours in Race-2 on Sunday, though he had to work hard for it. Earlier, another Chennai rider, Ryhana Bee (RACR Castrol Power Racing), returning to racing after a year’s gap following injury, topped the Girls race (Stock 165cc).

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

National Championship – Pro-Stock 301-400cc (Race-1): 1. Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power Racing, Chennai) (11mins, 28.636secs); 2. Rahil Shetty (Gusto Racing, Hyderabad) (11:30.050); 3. Anish Damodara Shetty (Race Concepts, Hubballi) (11:30.267). Race-2 (8 laps): 1. Rajini Krishnan (15:15.580); 2. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing, Chennai) (15:17.169); 3. Anish Damodara Shetty (15:17.977).

Pro-Stock 165cc Open (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing, Chennai) (15:48.429); 2. Rajiv Sethu (Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing, Chennai) (15:48.476); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (TVS Racing, Chennai) (15:54.822).

Novice (Stock, 165cc Race-2): 1. Alwin Sundar (AS Motorsports, Chennai) (13:04.324); 2. Anfal A (Rockstar Racing, Thrissur) (13:05.899); 3. JInendra Kiran Sangave (Pvt, Kolhapur). Girls (Stock 165cc, 5 laps): 1. Ryhana Bee (RACR, Chennai) (10:59.842); 2. Baddam Deepika Reddy (Gusto Racing, Hyderabad) (11:21.426); 3. Jagruthi Kiran (Sparks Racing, Mumbai) (11:21.647)