​MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2016

 The heat is on as the competition intensifies with nearly 200 entries in fray, including several international riders, and 22 races scheduled for the third round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship which gets underway at the MMRT track in Sriperumbudur, near here on Friday

The weekend fare includes races in the three main classes of the National Championship – the Super Sport Indian (165cc and 300-400cc), Pro-Stock 165 and Stock 165 – besides the MMSC One Make Championships for the three major manufacturers Honda (CBR 150 and 250), TVS (Apache RTR 200) and Suzuki Gixxer Cup.

The programme also showcases two support races in the Superbike (600-1000cc) category and two Ladies races by Honda and Alisha Abdullah Racing Academy. 

Much of the focus this weekend will be on the top-end Super Sport Indian class that has a combined grid of 300-400cc and up to 165cc bikes piloted by established riders, some of them like TVS Racing’s Jagan Kumar, Sarath Kumar of Honda Ten10 Racing and veteran Rajini Krishnan (Team RACR), with international experience.

Jagan heads the 165cc leaderboard with an 18-point lead over RACR’s Deepak Ravikumar. Behind the pair of front-runners, five riders are bunched tightly within 14 points of each other. TVS Racing’s Harry Sylvester leads this chasing pack ahead of Sarath Kumar, team-mate Kannan Subramaniam, Rajini Krishnan and young gun KY Ahmed (TVS Racing).

Another international rider Hari Krishnan of Honda Ten10 Racing heads the Pro-Stock category, having won all four races over the previous two rounds. Behind him are RACR’s Dinesh Kumar and Honda Ten10’s Rajiv Sethu, who like Hari Krishnan is a regular on the Asian circuit, with just one point separating them.

Coimbatore’s Antony Peter (RMC Racing) and Anish Shetty from Hubballi (United Tech Torque Racing) are within nine points of each other at the top of the Stock 165cc class which attracts first-timers and young, aspiring racers.

The three MMSC One Make Championships have proved to be very popular going by the huge number of entries and have produced keen competition in the previous rounds. It will be no less fierce this weekend with more than a handful of riders in contention for the championship titles.