Pole positions for Kayan Zubin Patel, Prabhu Arunagiri

Kayan Zubin Patel, a youngster from Mumbai, and Pacer Yamaha’s Prabhu Arunagiri qualified for pole positions in Novice (Stock 165cc) and Pro-Stock 165cc, respectively in the 3rd round of MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2022.

Timing a hot lap of one minute, 55.942secs, Arunagiri, a fight-scarred veteran, scored over fellow riders, Rajiv Sethu (Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing) and KY Ahamed (Petronas TVS Racing) with under a second isolating the triplet.

PrabhuArunagiri, who didn’t pick up any points in the past round last month and stood fifth on the leaderboard, had sufficient speed to hold off rivals that incorporated the accomplished Petronas TVS Racing sets of Deepak Ravikumar and reigning champ Jagan Kumar, who qualified P4 and P5. MathanaKumar (Pacer Yamaha) who leads this category, could manage just P6.

Kayan pushed out colleague VarunNanjundegowda from Mysuru while Hyderabad's MdSamrulZuair qualified third. Hubbali'sSarveshBalappa (Axor Sparks Racing), champ of each of the four races in the past two rounds, was fourth.

Belonging to a group of Motocross experts, Kayan changed to track racing. "I  participated in Autocross events like my father and uncles. It was difficult to work as I had reduced weight. Last season, I was 120Kgs, however presently, I am 85Kgs and need to decrease further," said 21-year-old Kayan.

KY Ahamed enjoyed a fine Free Practice session in the Pro-stock 301-400cc classification which he finished off with a bursting lap of 01:51.085, trailed by his Petronas TVS Racing partner Deepak Ravikumar (01:51.366) and Rajini Krishnan, National Champion, (01:52.746) of RACR Castrol Power1.

In the meantime, Ann Jennifer, the former champion in Alpha Racing, who won the first round, beat the Free Practice time sheet in the Girls (Stock 165cc) classification, timing the best lap of two minutes, 09.980secs. Aditi Krishnan, Championship leader (Winverve Apex Racing Academy) was the fifth quickest.

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