N Leelakrishnan went to the top of the Indian Touring Cars championship standings after a convincing win in the opening race of Round 4 of the MMSC-FMSCI National Racing Championship held in Chennai. S Narendran continued his unbeaten streak in the LGB F4 category while Deepak Chinappa and Suhail Sabharwak took honours in the LGB FS category. Japanese driver Yudai Jinkawa claimed pole position for tomorrow’s MRF 1600 race ahead of Tarun Reddy and Ashwin Sundar.
N Leelakrishnan qualified on pole position for the ITC race. He managed to fend off V Ramnarayan and Arjun Narendran at the start but the two kept up with the veteran driver putting pressure on him for the entire race . Arjun Balu continued to struggle with his new Volkswagen Vento and could only manage to finish in 5th position.
S Narendran continued his perfect championship run in the LGB Formula 4 category with another convincing win in Race 1. After a great start he never looked back and took the chequered flag over 20 seconds ahead of second placed Jigar Muni. Sudanand DR took the final step of the podium. In Race 1 of the LGB Formula Swift category Deepak Chinappa took only his second win of the season to extend his championship lead. Suhail Sabharwal finished in an impressive second place ahead of last round winner Prashanth K.
In the Indian Junior Touring Cars category, Feroze Khan, who is unbeaten at the MMRT this season, continued his great run of form with another win in Race 1. VJ Senthil finished in second place with Charen Chandran finishing in third place.
In Race 2 of the LGB F4 race Narendran won yet again but this time had to work hard for it. C Rajaram finished in second place with Emmanuel Jebaraj in third place. The LGB FS battle for first place ended in a crash with championship contenders Deepak Chinappa and Prashanth K colliding with each other while fighting for the top spot. This gave Suhail Sabharwal the win with Deepak making it back to second spot ahead of Rahul Rangaswamy. Prashanth K finished in 4th position.
Earlier in the day Japanese driver Yudai Jinkawa put in a brilliant lap to qualify on pole position for the MRF 1600 race. 15 year old Tarun Reddy qualified in 2nd position ahead of championship leader Ashwin Sundar. Vikash Anand and Advait Deodhar will start in 4th and 5th positions respectively. Both races in the MRF 1600 category will be held on Sunday.