Chennai, Dec 12 (Agency) Coimbatore veteran Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) and Bengaluru school boy Chirag Ghorpade lit up the second round of the MRF MMSC-FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship with dominating performances in their respective categories on a rain-marred Sunday at the MMRT here. Chirag, who had won the first race in the MRF F1600 category on Saturday, topped the third today of the triple-header after local teenager Dillon Zacharaiah took the honours in the second outing for his maiden win in this class. meanwhile, 47-year-old Balu brought his expertise to the fore to complete a double in the premier Indian Touring Cars class after starting from P3 (reverse grid) in a “wet race” following a bout of heavy showers in the afternoon.
Having won the first race yesterday, Balu, started behind two Rayo Racing polos of Anindith Reddy and Jeet Jhabakah and, played a waiting game before getting a jump on the two Hyderabad drivers for another brilliant win. Late in the evening, with light fast fading, Ghorpade scored a lights-to-flag win to complete a double, in a race that was reduced to six laps from the scheduled eight. Agra’s Shahan Ali Mohsin, who finished second, was later docked a 10-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane which pushed him to sixth. The penalty moved Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj to second place and Ashwin Datta (Chennai) to third. Also achieving a double was Coimbatore’s private entrant Charen Chandran who won both the races in the Super Stock category, while Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts) from Bengaluru ended Deepak Ravikumar’s (Performance Racing) winning streak in the Indian Junior Touring Cars class by winning Race-2 today. Salem’s Sai Sanjay and Ritesh Rai (Chennai) won a race apiece in the Volkswagen Polo category double-header after surviving tight finishes.