National Car Racing: Fierce battles for titles on the cards in final round

With expectations high of some close battles for titles, a grand and thrilling finish is on the cords in the fourth and final round of the FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2023 at the Madras International Circuit on the weekend.

A compact card of seven races across six categories will be headlined by the two MRF Formula categories – the 2000 and 1600 – with the ever-popular touring cars in three classes and the Formula LGB 1300 completing grids.

The battles for championship titles in both F2000 and F1600 are as close as they can get with a maximum of 75 points on offer across three races.

Chennai’s experienced campaigner Sandeep Kumar heads the points table in F2000 with a tally of 118 points, well clear of Kolkata’s Arya Singh (93). Chetan Korada (91), also from Chennai, is placed third ahead of the Bengaluru youngster Aditya Swaminathan (86).

The F1600 has boiled down to a three-way battle involving Bengaluru’s Chetan Surineni (87), Mumbai’s Veer Amar Sheth (82.5) and Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj (54).

The touring cars categories have two races scheduled with a maximum of 50 points. In the premier Indian Touring Cars class, Chennai’s Gurunath Meiyappan of Race Concepts, who won three of the eight races, requires just five more points to clinch the championship ahead of Team N1 Racing’s Biren Pithawalla (95) from Mumbai.

Last year’s champion, Coimbatore’s Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) has had a disastrous season as he failed to score a point in four of the eight races that neutralised his three wins. He is currently third in the championship with 93 points.

Thrissur’s Diljith TS (DTS Racing) with seven victories in eight starts, enjoys an unassailable 85-point lead over his closest rival and is virtually assured of the title in the Super Stock class.

Two Chennai drivers and Performance Racing team-mates, Akkineni Anand Prasad (172) and Deepak Ravikumar (169) head the pack in the Indian Junior Touring Cars class with four wins apiece.

The Formula LGB 1300 category will witness a four-way tussle for the championship involving Diljith (136), Raghul Rangasamy (MSport, 123), Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing, 111) and Deepak Ravikumar (Ahura Racing, 90).

Summing up the season, MMSC president Ajit Thomas said: “This weekend will see the conclusion of another season that had its quota of ups and downs. Through it all, our sponsors MRF Tyres, the competitors, the Media and volunteer officials, have been very supportive, for which MMSC is thankful. We are sure that the upcoming round will maintain the trend of close, wheel-to-wheel racing, especially since the championship titles are up for grabs.”