Kolkata’s Arya Singh recorded his maiden win in the MRF Formula 2000 category after a string of near misses to start his campaign in the fourth and final round of the MRF Indian National Car Racing Championship at the Madras International Circuit, here on Saturday .

Also chalking his first win in the MRF Formula 1600 category that was run on a combined grid with the F2000 was Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj after starting from P3.

Arya Singh, 22, made the best of a poor start by pole-sitter and championship leader Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) and jumped into the lead which he sustained with a brilliant drive. Arya did well to survive close attention from Jaden Rahman Pariat (Shillong) following a couple of laps behind the safety car which came into play after Bengaluru’s Aditya Swaminathan spun at the Bridge Complex. Jaden finished a deserving second followed by veteran Chetan Korada (Chennai).

“I am super happy today. In the past, I missed a win many times for some reason or the other. Today, after going into the lead, I was determined to make it count for my first win in this category,” said Arya Singh.

Meanwhile, Viswas Vijayaraj, in his first season in the MRF F1600, did well to grab the lead from a P3 start. He increased the gap lap by lap, showing good pace to emerge a deserving winner ahead of pole-sitter Aman Nagdev (Noida) and 16-year-old Veer Sheth (Mumbai). Championship leader Chetan Surineni (Bengaluru) came in fourth.

Earlier, Chennai’s Ritesh Rai (Arka Motorsports) grabbed the pole position with a hot lap of 01minute, 50.754 seconds followed by Biren Pithawalla (Team N1 Racing) from Mumbai (01:51.042) and last year’s champion, Coimbatore’s Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) whose best lap was 01:51.680 in the qualifying session. Championship leader in this category, Gurunath Meiyappan (Race Concepts) missed the qualifying run due to other commitments and will start last on the grid in Sunday’s Race-1.

Performance Racing’s pair of Deepak Ravikumar (01:55.697) and fellow-Chennai driver, Akkineni Anand Prasad (01:55.939) filled the front row in the Indian Junior Touring Cars category. Anand Prasad leads Ravikumar by just three points in the championship standings.