Pune: Veer Patel of Baroda steered his Honda CRF 250 with much panache taking advantage of defending champion Aravind KP’s stuttering start in the Moto 1 race in the Foreign Open class before making a clean race in the Moto 2 to win the class with 40 points at the Amanora Park Town ground here on Sunday afternoon.
The 2012 season of the National Supercross championship began with a bang in Pune with Patel beating an established team of TVS Racing Bangalore as individual entrants made hay in the prime event.
In the contest that left a packed crowd in awe of the roars of engines when the riders negotiated the challenges on the 750-metre track that was largely dry, Patel made sure that he was up to the task in besting company-backed team.
For Aravind it was bad luck as he made a messy start and was pushed to the last position in the Moto 1 before he fought his way back up to finish third. In Moto 2 also, Aravind’s TVS bike was much slower than the Hondas of Patel and CD Jinan of Kerala, who finished in the second position behind the Baroda rider with 34 points.
Aravind, however, had the solace of winning the Indian Experts Group B class 3 event on his TVS RTR 160, collecting full 20 points. TVS Racing Bangalore made a clean sweep in this class as R Natraj and Harith Noah took up the second and third positions behind Aravind.
A new kid emerged in the Private Foreign Open Group A category when Javed Shailk rode his KTM SXF 250 to the chequered flag twice during the day with almost no one providing him the real challenge. Goa boy Javed collected full 40 points from Pune leg with his statemate, Allen Sequiera coming in second with 34 points. Jatin Jain of Nagpur was third and settled with 30 points.
TVS Racing Bangalore won the Novice class too when Abhijit Shetty finished ahead of Sachin Ghorpade of Kolhapur in the TVS RTR 160 and earned 20 points. Ghorpade was astride TVS Fiero, while Bangalore boy Suhail Ahmed came in third on Yamaha RX 135.
RESULTS
Foreign Open Group A: 1-Veer Patel (Honda CRF 250, Baroda) 40 points, 2-CD Jinan (Honda CRF 250, Kerala) 34 pts, 3-Aravind KP (TVS RTR 250FX, TVS Racing, Bangalore) 30 pts.
Moto 1: 1-Veer Patel; 2-CD Jinan; 3-Aravind KP
Moto 2: 1-Veer Patel; 2-CD Jinan; 3-Aravind KP
Novice Group C: 1-Abhijit Shetty (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing, Bangalore) 20 pts, 2-Sachin Ghorpade (TVS Fiero, Kolhapur) 17 pts, 3-Suhail Ahmed (Yamaha RX 135, Bangalore) 15 pts.
Indian Experts Group C: 1-R Natraj (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing Bangalore) 20, 2-Madhu S (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing Bangalore) 17 pts, 3-Naresh VS (Yamaha RX 135, Bangalore) 15 pts.
Private Foreign Open Group A: 1-Javed Shaikh (KTM SXF 250, Goa) 40 pts, 2-Allen Sequiera (Kawasaki 250F, Goa) 34 pts, 3-Jatin Jain (Kawasaki 250F, Nagpur) 30 pts.
Indian Experts Group B: 1-Aravind KP (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing, Bangalore) 20 pts, 2-Natraj R (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing, Bangalore) 17 pts, 3-Harith Noah (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing, Bangalore) 15 pts.
Locals Group B: 1-Vishal Barguje (Yamaha RX 135, Pune) 20 pts , 2-Snehal Chavan (Yamaha RX 135, Pune) 17 pts, 3-Rustum Patel (TVS Apache, Mumbai) 15 pts.
Private Experts Group C: 1-Naresh VS (Yamaha RX 135, Bangalore) 20 pts, 2-Sachin Ghorpade (TVS Fiero, Kolhapur) 17 pts, 3-Vishal Barguje (Yamaha RXZ 135, Pune) 15 pts.
Best Rider of Day: Veer Patel.
