National Racing Challenge 2W: Double delight for Sabu, Senthil, Anandhu; Chiranth roars to another win

Chennai: In what turned out to be the race of the weekend, Chiranth Vishwanath, the 19-year-old from Bengaluru, held off his archrival and TVS Racing teammate, Sarthak Chavan of Pune, to complete a superb double in the premier Super Sport 301-400cc Open class as the third round of the Indian National Racing Challenge 2W 2026 concluded at the Madras International Circuit here on Sunday.

The six-lap race, delayed by about 30 minutes following sharp showers in the afternoon, provided high drama and thrills as the country’s top riders battled it out. For a second day in succession, Chiranth held off Chavan to claim a memorable victory.

Chiranth, winner of Race-1 on Saturday with a record lap time, Sarthak, and their younger teammate Rakshith Dave took turns to lead the pack. In fact, Rakshith looked set for a win when he led comfortably before almost slipping when negotiating a puddle of water, which cost him three spots, and he eventually finished fourth behind Thiruvallur’s Mohamed Mikail (MadRabbit Racing).

Up ahead, leader Sarthak and Chiranth were locked in a titanic fight. The decisive moment came in the closing stages when Chiranth roared past Sarthak, who had a 'moment' and lost position. The Bengaluru rider went on to register his second win of the weekend while Sarthak again had to be content with a P2 finish.

Earlier, Bengaluru’s 19-year-old Savion Sabu delivered another strong performance as he led a maiden podium sweep for the MadRabbit Racing team besides achieving a double this weekend in the Pro-Stock 200cc Open class. Savion managed to stave off close attention from teammates Mohamed Mikail (Thiruvallur) and AS James (Bengaluru).

Coimbatore’s Senthil Kumar (Rockers Racing) and Anandhu KK from Chennai (Veedol C2 Racing) completed a double apiece in the Super Stock 301-400cc Open and Super Stock 165cc Intermediate classes, respectively.

Local challenger Venugopalan S. (Motul Sparks Racing) scored his first win in the extremely competitive Stock 301-400cc Novice class. The podium spots were up for grabs until the last lap when Venugopalan surged ahead, with Trichy’s Kavicholaiarasan (Speed Up Racing) and Shyam Sundar (M3 Torque Motorsports) finishing behind him in that order.

Pothu Vignesh from Mancherial, Telangana, notched his third win in six starts to finish second and maintained his top position in the points tally in the Experts category. Bengaluru’s Dev Agastya Reddy finished second, ahead of Godwin Clarence from Coimbatore.

The Indian National Racing Challenge 2W 2026 will take a two-month break and resume in January 2027.

The results (Provisional – all 6 laps unless mentioned):

Super Sport 301-400cc Open (Race-2): 1. Chiranth Vishwanath (Bengaluru, Petronas TVS Racing) (11min, 09.613sec); 2. Sarthak Chavan (Pune, Petronas TVS Racing) (11:09.870); 3. Mohamed Mikail (Thiruvallur, MadRabbit Racing) (11:11.383).

Pro-Stock 200cc Open (Race-2): 1. Savion Sabu (Bengaluru, MadRabbit Racing) (11:51.669); 2. Mohamed Mikail (Thiruvallur, MadRabbit Racing) (11:52.361); 3. AS James (Bengaluru, MadRabbit Racing) (11:54.026).

Super Stock 301-400cc Open (Race-2): 1. Senthil Kumar (Coimbatore, Team RACR Castrol Power1) (11:28.204); 2. Abdul Basim RS (Chennai, Chandra LGE Racing) (11:28.544); 3. P Sri Harsha (Hyderabad, Motul Gusto Racing) (11:36.386).

Super Stock 165cc Intermediate (Race-2): 1. Anandhu KK (Chennai, Veedol C2 Racing) (12:42.998); 2. Ann Jennifer AS (Chennai, Motul Sparks Racing) (12:43.277); 3. Anand Kumar S (Chennai, Ipone Yakuza Racing) (12:51.912).

Stock 301-400 Novice (Race-2): 1. Venugopalan S (Chennai, Motul Sparks Racing) (12:20.189); 2. Kavicholaiarasan (Trichy, Speed Up Racing) (12:23.133); 3. Shyam Sundar K (Chennai, M3 Torque Motorsports) (12:25.506).

Stock 165cc Novice (Race-2) 3 laps: 1. Hari Haran R (Coimbatore, RACR Castrol Power 1) (06:36.460); 2. Akarsh Jangam (Vijayawada, MAI Racing) (06:36.616); 3. Faruk Ali Sohtun (East Khasi, Motul Sparks Racing) (06:37.309).

Petronas TVS One-Make Championship:

Expert (Apache RR 310) Race-2: 1. Rajender Beedani (Hyderabad) (11:32.870); 2. Hari Haran R (Coimbatore) (11:33.963); 3. AS James (Bengaluru) (11:39.270).

Rookie (Apache RTR 200) Race-2: 1. Pothu Vignesh (Mancherial) (13:13.874); 2. Dev Agastya (Bengaluru) (13:14.006); 3. Godwin Clarence C (Coimbatore) (13:14.518).

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