Jagan cuts Rajiv’s lead in national racing championship

Chennai, Sep 10 (IANS) Defending champion Jagan Kumar led a podium sweep for TVS Racing, as he narrowed his personal gap with leader Honda's Rajiv Sethu, who crashed after exiting the short loop at the conclusion of Round 4 of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the MMRT track here on Sunday.

Jagan resurrected his campaign with a grand double to add up to his podium finish in the premier Super Sport Indian (up to 165cc) class on Saturday.

Having won the first race in the premier Super Sport Indian (up to 165cc) class on Saturday, Jagan (122) maintained his crackling form with another flawless ride to top the second outing on Sunday and narrow the gap with leader Rajiv (123) to just a single point.

Sethu did no favours for his chances as he high-sided after exiting the short loop.

The 50 points that Jagan garnered this weekend, saw him jump two spots from fourth to second on the leaderboard, moving past team-mate Harry Sylvester (99) and Honda's Mathana Kumar (109) who too crashed, but managed to finish the race in sixth position.

Finishing second behind Jagan were team-mates K.Y. Ahamed and Kannan Subramaniam as the trio underlined TVS Racing's dominance as the championship moves into the final round slated for September 29-October 1 at the same venue.

"For the first time this season, I got the bike set-up right. On Saturday, it was a close fight with Rajiv initially, but on Sunday, it was very comfortable. Both Rajiv and Mathana Kumar crashed and I eased up considerably," said Jagan after chalking up his fourth win of the season.

In the Pro-Stock (Up to 165cc) category, Hubballi's Anish Shetty (Honda) notched up his maiden win of the season, ahead of championship leader and team-mate Aravind Balakrishnan and Moto-Rev's Aravind Ganesh. The result saw Balakrishnan move to 126 points while Ganesh has 105.

The Novice class (Stock, up to 165cc) is also poised for a keen finish as Sparks Racing swept the podium with Peddu Sriharsha, Sri Rahil Pillarishetty and Satyanarayana Raju taking the chequered flag in the order.

Pillarishetty heads the leaderboard in this category with 61 points, followed by Sriharsha and RACR's Anup Kumar, both tied on 50, six ahead of Raju.

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