Exciting Opening Round of the MRF Indian National Car Racing Championship 2024

Day 1, 17th February, Saturday

Mumbai’s Biren Pithawalla (N1 Racing) pulled off a fine win in the premium Indian Touring Cars class while Performance Racing’s Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwalla from Chennai took the honours in the Indian Junior Touring Cars segment and Chandigarh’s Angad Matharoo (Buzzing Hornet Motorsport) topped the Super Stock category.

Late in the evening, Pune’s Diana Pundole won the MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios) race with ease in a race interrupted by a safety car period following a three-car collision.

Meanwhile, Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj and Arya Singh from Kolkata took the front row in that order for their team, DTS Racing, after a start-stop-start qualifying session interrupted by a red flag due an on-track incident.

The eight-lap race in the MRF Formula category witnessed some fine action. Pole-sitter 17-year-old Jaden Rahaman Pariat from Shillong looked poised to win in the F2000 class going into the last lap when disaster struck. “There was some issue with my car and I had to switch off and switch on eight times in the last lap. Luckily, I had a sufficient lead and managed to finish second,” said a disappointed Jaden after he virtually gifted a win to Surineni, 17, who was trailing throughout the race. Another Bengalurean, Tarun Muthaiah finished third. In contrast, 15-year-old Abhay Mohan comfortably won in the Formula 1600 class ahead of the Mumbai pair of Zahan Commissariat and Raaj Bakhru who was docked a 20-second penalty for a jump start.

Biren, starting from pole, was off to a good start and held off Ritesh Rai (Arka Motorsport) with cousin Ananth Pithawalla (N1 Racing) running third. The position remained unchanged until the latter half of the eight-lap race when Ananth squeezed past Rai at Turn-3 with a contact between the two, and moved into P2 behind his cousin Biren. In the penultimate lap, Ananth retired when the left front tyre, that was on a slow puncture, burst, and Rai regained the second spot. By then, Biren had pulled off sufficient lead to win handily, followed by Rai and Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing), making his debut in this class. 

Day 2, 18th February

Bengaluru’s Abhay Mohan, the youngest competitor at 15 years of age, in the MRF Formula 1600 category, swept to a triple crown while another teenager, Jaden Rahman Pariat from Shillong notched a double in the MRF Formula 2000 class as the first round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2024 concluded at the Madras International Circuit here on Sunday.

Mumbai’s Biren Pithawalla (Team N1 Racing) crowned himself with a grand double in the Indian Touring Cars category as did Angad Matharoo (Buzzing Hornet Motorsport) from Chandigarh in the Super Stock class.

Also notching a double was Pune’s Diana Pundole, a mother of two, in the MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios) category besides one P3 finish, while DTS Racing dominated the Formula LGB 1300 triple-header, with a podium sweep as Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj won two races and team-mate Arya Singh, the other with Balaprasath finishing third in all three outings.

Jaden, the 17-year-old from Shillong, displayed impressive pace to win both the races today in the MRF F2000 category to make up for his P2 finish yesterday when he surrendered a massive lead in the last lap due to engine issues. Bengaluru’s Chetan Surineni, the Race-1 winner yesterday, came in second in both the outings today.

Reviewing his performance this weekend, Jaden said: “I did some preparation by watching my onboard videos from my December race. I realised there was plenty in the car. It was a question of putting things together which I did this weekend. I feel there is still a lot I can extract from this car. Of course, my stint in British Formula 4 helped, but the F2000 is far quicker and I felt very comfortable this weekend.”

Abhay Mohan, as in the first race yesterday, was in a league of his own in both the outings today to complete a triple crown and underline his talent and potential. “My only target for this round was to be on top, which I did. The car too was pretty good and so were the MRF tyres. My preparation was to get fit and learn from my Formula LGB 1300 outing last season. Yes, I feel good to have won all three races this weekend,” said Abhay.

Biren, having won a close Race-1 on Saturday, started P4 on the reverse grid in today’s 10-lap Race-2, but in the very first lap, seized the lead, hotly pursued by Ritesh Rai (Arka Motorsport) and, cousin and team-mate Ananth Pithawalla.

The trio quickly distanced themselves from the pack before both Rai and Ananth packed up with punctures. Rai rejoined after a visit to the pit, but it was too late. Ananth suffered yet another tyre-burst to finish the weekend without points. Meanwhile, Biren was in cruise mode and comfortably won the race ahead of pole-sitter Pratik Sonawane (Buzzing Hornet Motorsport) and Deepak Ravikumar (Team Performance Racing).

Down the combined grid, Srinivas Teja (Team Performance Racing) edged out Race-1 winner and team-mate Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwala in the Indian Junior Touring Cars class, while Matharoo fought his way to his second win of the weekend with a late burst in the Super Stock category.

The results (Provisional):

Day 1:
MRF Formula 2000 

Race-1: 1. Chetan Surineni (Bengaluru) (12:49.401); 2. Jaden Rahman Pariat (Shillong) (13:20.579); 3. Tarun Muthaiah (Bengaluru) (13:58.255).

MRF Formula 1600

Race-1: 1. Abhay Mohan (Bengaluru) (13:49.827); 2. Zahan Commissariat (Mumbai) (14:00.386); 3. Raaj Bakhru (Mumbai) (14:23.370).

Indian Touring Cars

Race-1: 1. Biren Pithawala (Mumbai, Team N1) (15:21.359); 2. Ritesh Rai (Chennai, Arka Motorsports) (15:22.782); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Performance Racing) (15:34.211).

Indian Junior Touring Cars

Race-1: 1. Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwala (Chennai, Performance Racing) (15:35.231); 2. Srinivas Teja (Chennai, Performance Racing) (15:41.732); 3. Nikunj Vagh (Mumbai, Team N1 Racing) (15:53.915).

Super Stock

Race-1: 1. Angad Matharoo (Chandigarh, Buzzing Hornet Motorsports) (16:48.478); 2. Balaprasath (Coimbatore, DTS Racing) (16:52.781); 3. Anirudha Arvind (Chennai, Redline Racing India) (16:54.402).

MRF Saloons Toyota Etios

Race-1: 1. Diana Pundole (Pune) (18:10.588); 2. Anirudha Arvind (Chennai) (18:15.446); 3. Jai Prashanth (Coimbatore) (18:15.850).

Day 2:

MRF Formula 2000
Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Jaden Rahman Pariat (Shillong) (15mins, 44.717secs); 2. Chetan Surineni (Bengaluru) (16:02.706). Tarun Muthaiah (Bengaluru) who finished third was disqualified for a black flag violation. Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Jaden Rahman Pariat (12:35.788); 2. Chetan Surineni (12:50.154); 3. Tarun Muthaiah (13:31.154).

MRF Formula 1600 

Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Abhay Mohan (Bengaluru) (17:14.365); 2. Zahan Commissariat (Mumbai) (17:26.618); 3. Monith Kumaran (Chennai) (15:47.911+1 lap). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Abhay Mohan (13:51.711); 2. Zahan Commissariat (14:00.143); 3. Raaj Bakhru (Mumbai) (14:03.179).

Indian Touring Cars 

Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Biren Pithawala (Mumbai, Team N1 Racing) (19:14.983); 2. Pratik Sonawane (Pune, Buzzing Hornet Motorsport) (19:35.983); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Performance Racing) (19:36.365).

Indian Junior Touring Cars 

Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Srinivas Teja ((Chennai, Performance Racing) (19:43.845); 2. Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwala (Chennai, Performance Racing) (19:44.608); 3. Yug Italiya (Mumbai, Team N1 Racing) (19:54.746).

Super Stock 

(Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Angad Matharoo (Chandigarh, Buzzing Hornet MS) (21:03.892); 2. Manan Patel (Mumbai, Redline Racing) (21:04.737); 3. Anirudha Arvind  (Chennai, Redline Racing India) (21:13.128).

MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios) 

Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Anirudha Arvind (Chennai, Redline Racing) (20:47.868); 2. Jai Prashanth Venkat (Coimbatore, Redline Racing) (20:54.145); 3. Diana Pundole (Pune, Redline Racing) (20:54.735). 

Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Diana Pundole (16:31.795); 2. Anirudha Arvind (16:33.562); 3. Kesara Godage (Sri Lanka, Redline Racing) (16:43.645);

Formula LGB 1300 

Race-1 (8 laps): 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (Nellore, DTS Racing) (14:57.600); 2. Arya Singh (Kolkata, DTS Racing) (15:00.136); 3. Balaprasath (Coimbatore, DTS Racing) (15:14.379). 

Race-2 (8 laps): 1. Arya Singh (15:07.040); 2. Viswas Vijayaraj (15:11.098); 3. Balaprasath (15:15.423). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (14:56.286); 2. Arya Singh (15:01.417); 3. Balaprasath (15:06.693).