Country’s leading manufacturers Honda, TVS and Suzuki will also run their one-make championship in Novice and Open categories while there will be separate races for Superbikes (600cc and 1000cc, combined grid) as a support event for the first time this season. All the vehicles will be fitted with MRF tyres.
The National Championship underwent a makeover at the start of the new season and it comprises of three categories Stock 165 (Novice), Pro-Stock 165 (Open) and Super Sport Indian 165 (modified) which will have the best of Indian riders in the fray.
The provisional schedule comprises 25 races spread over three days, Friday through Sunday preceded by practice sessions on Thursday. Also on the programme are two all-ladies races run by Honda and Alisha Abdullah Racing Academy.
The first round of the new-look Championship held in Coimbatore in June, witnessed fierce competition with the various grids boasting of country’s top-notch riders representing leading teams such as Moto-Rev Yamaha Factory Racing, Honda Ten10 Racing, Apex Racing, Sparks Racing and United Torque Racing among others.
The TVS-MMSC one-make series has been upgraded with the introduction of the TVS Apache RTR 200 replacing the Apache RTR 180 while the Honda-MMSC races will see the CBR 150 (Novice) and CBR 250 (Open) in action and so also the Suzuki Gixxer Cup series which will have the Gixxer 150 SF in both Novice and Open categories.
A new section for riders in the 13-17 years age group has been added in the Suzuki Gixxer Cup Novice category. Ten riders who will compete in this category are selected and trained as part of the official programme for Road to Redbull Rookie Cup.
The Novice categories have attracted a huge number of entries, necessitating in a cut-off based on timings. The growing popularity is another testimony to MMSC’s efforts that have resulted in attracting two-wheeler manufacturers besides fresh talent.
Final results
One-Make championship: Suzuki Gixxer Cup (open, 6 laps)
Meka Vidhuraj (Nuzvid, 13:28.003s)
Rajinikanth (Chennai, 13:28.145)
Vishwadev Muraleedharan (Coimbatore, 13:28.614)
TVS-MMSC Apache RTR 200 (novice, 4 laps)
Yuvaraj (Chennai, 09:11.643)
R.L. Yashas (Bengaluru, 09:12.023)
Kamran Alam (Patna, 09:14.252)
Honda-MMSC CBR 150 (novice, 4 laps)
Piyush Ranjan (Patna, 08:52.381)
Shreyas Shankar Sannake (Miraj, 08:54.647)
Anish D. Shetty (Hubballi, 08:58.792)
