Chennai, Dec 26 (Representative) The second, third and fourth rounds of MMSC-FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Drag Racing Championship 2022 will be held at the Madras International Circuit from tomorrow till December 30. While the first round of the four-round Championship was held in July, the subsequent outings could not be held as scheduled due to monsoon rains and the recent cyclone that severely impacted the region. As such, the promoters, Madras Motor Sports Club, decided to bunch the remaining three rounds and complete the championship. Tomorrow has been set aside for practice sessions, while the following three days will witness final runs in Rounds 2, 3 and 4 at the end of which the National Champions will be declared. As has been the trend in the championship, close to 150 entries, across eight categories, have been received with MMSC incentivising the riders to compete in all the three rounds this week.
Headlining the highly competitive fields is reigning National champion Hemanth Muddappa representing Mantra Racing team from Bengaluru. In the first round, Muddappa won two National championship races and one support race and he is expected to extend his domination this week. One of the highlights of the weekend would be the 4-Stroke Unrestricted category where Muddappa faces arch-rival and fellow-Bengalurean Alimon Saidalvi who won the 302-metre dash in July. On view this week would be an array of super bikes, ranging from the Suzuki Hayabusa to Triumph to BMW, besides a host of modified Indian bikes. In fact, Bengaluru is very strongly represented in all the categories, while riders from Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai, fill up the rest of the grids. Two of the categories – Super Sport 851-1050cc and Super Sport 166-225cc – will be run as support events. As in the past, the 2-Stroke categories have attracted the most number of entries, totalling over 60 while the Girls class (4-Stroke up to 165cc) has eight competitors.