Rugved and Prajwal stamp their class with a race win each

Coimbatore

Petronas TVS Racing stars Rugved Bharguje and V. Prajwal stamped their class with a race win each in the premier SX1 class, in the season’s opening round of the FMSCI MRF MOGRIP National supercross championship at the Codissia grounds here on Sunday.

The sun played hide and seek for most part but the riders, in particular Rugved and Prajwal, did not wish to do that. Prajwal challenged Rugved right at the start of the day. The latter fought hard but the former displayed great skill and technique to finish on top. The sizeable crowd enjoyed every bit of their fight.

It was payback time for Rugved, the defending champion, in the second race which was red-flagged in the first lap and had to be restarted. But Rugved stayed calm and quickly shot into the lead and kept working hard both on the ground and in the air to win it in style.

Petronas TVS Racing sounded confident of topping the charts in the Indian Experts Class, but found the Team Hero boys M. Karan Kumar and T. Arun a tough nut to crack. However, Banteilang Jerwa went that extra mile to take the top place on the podium.

The results (provisional):

Class 1, SX1 (A&B): Group A (Stroke 2/4, upto 500cc): 1. Rugved Barguje (Petronas TVS Racing, 17, 20, 37 points); 2. V. Prajwal (Petronas TVS, 20, 15, 35); 3. Ikshan Shanbhag (Petronas TVS, 15, 13, 28).

Class 2, SX2 (A&B): Group A (Stroke 2/4, upto 500cc): 1. Shlok Ghorpade (Satara, 20, 27, 37); 2. Sarthak Chavan (Pune, 13, 20, 33); 3. Aman Varghese (Ernakulam, 17, 15, 32).

Class 3, Novice: Group C (Stroke 2/4, upto 260cc, Moto 1): 1. Sachin (Petronas TVS, 20); 2. M. Udayakumar (Cbe, 17); 3, Shailesh Kumar (Cbe, 15).

Class 4, Locals: Group B (Stroke 2/4, upto 260cc, Moto 1): 1. M. Karan Kumar (Team Hero, 20); 2. R. Sabrish (Cbe, 17); 3. L. Nitya (Cbe, 15).

Class 5, Indian Experts: Group C (Stroke 2/4, upto 260cc, Moto 1): 1. Banteilang Jerwa (Petronas TVS, 20); 2. M. Karan Kumar (Team Hero, 17); 3. T. Arun (Team Hero, 15).

Class 6, Private Experts: Group C (Stroke 2/4, upto 260cc, Moto 1): 1. L. Nathan (Cbe, 20); 2. M. Udayakumar (Cbe, 17); 3. Shaliesh Kumar (Cbe, 15).

Class 7, Junior SX 1: Group A (Stroke 2/4, upto 250cc, Moto 2): 1. Shlok Ghorpade (Satara, 20, 20, 40); 2. Jinendra Sangave (Kolhapur, 17, 17, 34; 3. V. Wilmer (Kochi, 15, 15, 30).

Class 8 Junior SX2: Group A (Stroke 2/4, upto 100cc, Moto 2): 1. C. Bhairav (Bng, 17, 20, 37); 2. J. Sujan (Cbe, 20, 17, 37); 3. Darshit Chavan (15, 10, 25).