Chirag Ghorpade and Arjun Balu put in near-flawless performances before heavy rains intervene

Zahan Commissariat claimed the honours in the MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios) race, which was red-flagged after five laps due to heavy rains

Bengaluru teenager Chirag Ghorpade and Coimbatore veteran Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) put in near-flawless winning performances in their respective categories before heavy rains led to the abandonment of the first round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2022 at the Madras International Circuit, here on Sunday.

The day’s other winner was Mumbai youngster Zahan Commissariat, who claimed the honours in the MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios) race, which was red-flagged after five laps due to heavy rains.

Later, it was an Arjun show in the saloon cars race that was run on a combined 27-car grid comprising all three categories — the premier Indian Touring Cars, Indian Junior Touring Cars and Super Stock.

Narendran finished second ahead of Rayo Racing’s Jeet Jhabakh from Hyderabad, who was in the brand new Volkswagen Virtus, which made its debut in the championship this weekend.

Behind the front-runners, Chennai’s Gurunath Meiyappan (Race Concepts), racing in the championship for the first time since 1999, topped the IJTC category, followed by team-mate Diana Pundole (Pune). However, both were disqualified following post-race scrutiny for a “technical infringement”. Chennai’s Anand Prasad (Performance Racing), thus, moved from third to first, ahead of team-mate K. Srinivas Teja and Charen Chandran (Arka Motorsports).

Ritesh Rai (Performance Racing), also from Chennai, won in the Super Stock class, followed by DB Motorsports pair of Jason Deepak Saldanha (Mangaluru) and Jarshan Anand (Chennai).

Provisional results: MRF F2000 (Race-2, 12 laps): 1. Chirag Ghorpade (21:09.735); 2. Rishon Rajeev (21:13.319); 3. Dillon Thomas Zachariah (21:15.235).