For most part of the day, the only point of interest was who from TVS would clinch top honours in the Class I Foreign Open category (Group A, 250-500 cc) in the absence of CS Santhosh, missing after suffering a pelvic injury during practice.
Notwithstanding a mudguard-to-mudguard chase from the throttle-addicted Veer Patel of Honda and fiery team-mate KP Aravind, Bangalore’s HK Pradeep (TVS) flew past the chequered flag in style to grab the title with victory in moto II.
After snaking past congested traffic at the start of moto II, Pradeep put himself ahead of the pack by quite a margin by turn three to all but knot up victory. The actual battle, however, was being fought for the second and third place between Kerala’s CD Jinan and Aravind.
Jinan did well to keep Aravind behind him up until the tabletop at the finish line on lap two, but a blinder of a move from Aravind took him ahead. Steaming down from the tabletop, Aravind went on Jinan’s outside to use most of the side wall, but in a surprise move he broke from his racing line and undercut his rival to jump to second spot. Patel managed to overtake Jinan, still recovering from Aravind’s daredevilry, on the third lap and hold on to the third spot.
Aravind did threaten to get close enough to make a move on Pradeep with a couple of turns left on the final lap, but a minor technical glitch forced him to settle for second.
Earlier, in moto I, Aravind claimed the top spot and Pradeep finished second while Patel came in third. Benefitting from the International Motorcycling Federation’s (FIM) rule to ‘award the overall crown to the rider who wins moto II’, Pradeep clinched the crown and also grabbed the ‘Best Rider’ award to round off a great day for him and TVS.
Results: Class I: Foreign Open (Group A, 250cc-500cc): Moto I: Aravind KP (TVS Racing) 1; HK Pradeep (TVS) 2; Veer Patel (Vadodara) 3. Moto II: Pradeep 1; Aravind 2; Patel 3.
Indian Experts (Group B, upto 260 cc): Moto I: Aravind KP 1; HK Pradeep 2; Pramod Joshua 3. Moto II: Aravind 1; Pradeep 2; Joshua 3. Group C, upto 260cc: Pramod Joshua (TVS) 1; Nataraj (TVS) 2; Mohammed Azghar (TVS) 3.
Private Foreign (Group A, upto 250cc-500cc): CD Jinan (Kerala) 1; Zain Khan (Mumbai) 2; Allan Sequiera (Goa) 3.
Private Experts (Group C, upto 260cc): Madhu S (Bangalore) 1; Vinod L (Ban) 2; Adnan Ahmed (Ban) 3.
Novice (Group C, upto 260cc): Anil Kumar (Ban) 1; Basheer Ahmed (TVS) 2; Syed Dastagiri (Shimoga) 3.
Locals (Group B, upto 260cc): Madhu S (Ban) 1; Vinod L (Ban) 2; Shahbaz Khan (Ban) 3.
