Chennai, India – Local driver Karthik Tharanisingh began his defense of the MRF Formula 1600 class of the National Racing Championship in perfect style by winning both races at the iconic Madras Motor Race Track, near Sriperumbudur, on the weekend of January 30/31.
Tharanisingh, who clinched the 2015 title at the final round after winning the previous year’s Volkswagen Polo R Cup championship, set the pace in practice on Friday, then claimed the pole on Saturday, topping the 17-car field with a time of 1:40.761. Goutham Parekh set the second fastest lap at 1:40.065, fractionally ahead of Anindith Reddy on 1:41.197.
Tharanisingh led throughout the first seven-lap race on Sunday, eventually winning by just over three seconds from Parekh. Reddy, from Hyderabad, winner of the 2015 Vento Cup, finished third a similar distance in arrears.
Race Two later in the day featured a reverse grid with the top four finishers from the opening round inverted for the start. It proved to be only a minor inconvenience for Tharanisingh who cut through the field and once again emerged the winner, albeit by a slender margin of less than a half-second over Raghul Rangasamy. The result represented an impressive MRF F1600 debut for Rangasamy, 22, who finished fourth in Race One. Reddy once again completed the podium in third.
Tharanisingh, who celebrated his 22nd birthday on January 24, becomes the early championship leader with 50 points to the 30 of both Parekh, Rangasamy and Reddy. The championship winner will join other open-wheel champions from around the world in receiving an invitation to the Mazda Road to Indy $200K Scholarship Shootout, which will take place later this year in North America. The winner will receive a US$200,000 Mazda scholarship to race in the 2017 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda. USF2000 is the first step on the unique Mazda Road to Indy development ladder which offers scholarship prizes for drivers to progress all the way from karting through USF2000, the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires to the Verizon IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500.
A busy weekend of racing at MMRT also saw the conclusion of the MRF International Challenge. Pietro Fittipaldi, 17-year-old grandson of two-time Formula 1 World Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi, clinched the championship on the heels of two wins from the four races.
Russian Nikita Troitcki and Belgium’s Alessio Picariello scored the other race victories, while Englishman Harrison Newey, son of F1 design guru Adrian Newey, and 17-year-old German Mick Schumacher, son of seven-time F1 World Champion Michael, also claimed podium finishes.
Colombia’s Tatiana Calderon, who raced in Pro Mazda before moving to Europe, secured second place in the championship by just eight points over Troitcki.
About MMSC:
The Madras Motor Sports Club has been the pioneer in developing motorsport in India since 1953. It is our endeavor to provide more opportunities for our competitors and thus have chalked out a progressive program for 2016. From the days of Sholavaram, MMSC built its own racetrack which was inaugurated in 1979 and secured its FIA Grade-2 international certification in 2015, making it the only Indian club which owns such a facility. The club has organised the Porsche Super Cup, Formula Campos, Formula Asia, Asian touring car championships, Formula 3, Tata Prima Truck racing championship, the Asian 2-wheeler racing championships besides a host of other motorsport events over the years. The club also has active participation for its events from vehicle manufacturers who also use the Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) extensively for their testing.
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