Delhi

Balu wins 11th national title, Sanjay crowned MRF F2000 champion

Pratik Sonawane and Viswas Vijayraj won the Polo Cup and Formula LGB 1300 titles, respectively.

2 min read•30 Jan '23

Unnatee Gidithuri

10K+ views

Arjun Balu 2022 Indian Touring Cars at Madras International Circuit

Sai Sanjay MRF F2000 at Madras International Circuit

The delayed 2022 season of the MRF MMSC Indian National Car Racing Championship wrapped up with a final round at the Madras International Circuit. Sai Sanjay and Arjun Balu emerged as the big winners, taking home the MRF Formula 2000 (F2000) and Indian Touring Cars titles, respectively.

Elsewhere, Viswas Vijayraj clinched the Formula LGB 1300 title, while Pratik Sonawane took home the crown in the revived Polo Cup series.

Balu secures Indian Touring Cars crown
Sanjay wins MRF F2000 title ahead of Mohamed and Nandan

MRF F2000

It was a tense title decider in the MRF F2000 class, with five drivers fighting for victory heading into the finale. Sohil Shah stood out, winning all three races over the weekend. However, the 21-year-old from Bengaluru had to skip two of the four rounds this season, and had to settle for fourth overall.

Sai Sanjay’s two podium appearances were enough for him to secure the overall title, ahead of Ryan Mohamed and Divy Nandan.

Indian Touring Cars

Quite a few leading drivers ended up being disqualified from the Indian Touring Cars races due to technical infringements. Race Concepts’ Arjun Balu and Arka Motorsports’ Arjun Narendran, who finished first and second in Race 1, were both later disqualified.

Narendran was disqualified from Race 2 as well, but returned to win Race 3. However, Balu’s Race 2 win and second place in Race 3 was enough for him to seal the title. This is the veteran racer’s 11th national title.

Formula LGB 1300

Initial Formula LGB 1300 class leader Raghul Rangasamy (MSport) dropped out of contention after being disqualified for ignoring a black flag in the final race. This allowed Viswas Vijayraj (DTS Racing) to seal the title after finishing the race in second place, behind Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsports).

Polo Cup

With Volkswagen Motorsport India operations handed over to Rayo Racing, the revived Polo Cup returned to the national championship in the penultimate round. That round was dominated by Sandeep Kumar. But since he was just a guest driver, Pratik Sonawane took the overall championship lead.

Despite not winning a race in the finale, Sonawane's three podium appearances were enough for him to win the title.

As for the remaining classes, Performance Racing’s Ritesh Rai and Akkineni Anand Prasad won the Super Stock and Indian Junior Touring Cars titles, respectively. The title in the MRF Saloons class, featuring the Toyota Etios, was won by Justin Singh.