National drag race championship final this weekend

Chennai, March 23 :The national drag racing championship's finale will be run at the refurbished Madras Motor Racing track (MMRT) here this weekend with round two scheduled for Saturday and the concluding round on Sunday.

For the first time the meet will be held at the MMRT track which is being transformed into India's only multi-event motorsport facility run by a club with provision to conduct events ranging from racing to karting to dirt track competitions.

As many as 100 participants will vie for honours in various categories. The start-finish straight at the MMRT track has been extended to conform to the regulations.

The spotlight would be on Bengaluru's Pratap Jayaram and national two-wheeler champion local lad Jagan Kumar of TVS Racing who won in the Indian Open class among cars and bikes, respectively.

Veteran Jayaram, driving a modified Reva, evoked memories of his salad days as racer a few decades ago by clocking the fastest time in the Hosur round and is expected to dish out a repeat performance this weekend.

Likewise, Jagan took no prisoners while riding his trusted TVS Apache RTR to victory in the Indian Open besides topping the time charts in the 165cc class.

The two-day event beginning Saturday will be a two-tier affair comprising National Championship and support races for both bikes and cars.

All four-stroke bikes fall into the national championship category, the showpiece events being the Indian Open (modified) and the superbikes.

In the four-wheeler category, the Indian Open (modified) and the Unrestricted classes form the National Championship backed by support races.