Pune Teenager Sarthak Chavan scored the biggest win of his blossoming racing career by trumping the Pro-Stock 165cc Open field in the second round of the Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship here on Sunday.

 The 16-year old Sarthak’s landmark win saw him lead a 1-2 for his team Petronas TVS Racing’s with KY Ahamed.

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Earlier, Rajiv Sethu (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) completed a double in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open category. Also tasting success in the National Championship were Hyderabad’s Vignesh Goud (Race’ists Motorcycle Club) who completed a second double of the season in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category, and 2020 champion Ann Jennifer (Alpha Racing) who notched her first win of the season in the Girls (Stock 165cc) class. 

The day belonged to Sarthak who is doing a diploma course in Mechanical Engineering. The Race-2 of the Pro-Stock 165cc Open category, that witnessed as many as four riders taking turns to lead, Sarthak, kept his wits as he bravely fought wheel to wheel with a clutch of highly experienced riders, including Sethu, winner of Race-1 yesterday, Ahamed and Jagan Kumar (Petronas TVS Racing).

The race turned decisively in his favour when Jagan crashed in the last lap allowing Sarthak, running second at that point, to take the lead which he kept to the finish. Ahamed followed him home in second ahead of pole-sitter Sethu who opted to go for points rather than win.

Earlier, in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open race, Rajiv Sethu shrugged off an error-filled opening lap to ease past front-runner Deepak Ravikumar (Petronas TVS Racing) for the lead. Thereafter, it was literally a procession even as Ravikumar crashed leaving Petronas TVS Racing pair of Sarthak Chavan and Jagan Kumar to take up the chase that faded with each lap and Sethu won comfortably to complete a clean sweep of four races over two rounds in his debut season in this category. 

Likewise, pole-sitter Vignesh Goud, after an initial scramble, got away from the field for his second win of the weekend and fourth of the season. Finishing behind the winner were two Bengalureans, Manvith Reddy (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) and Savion Babu (Axor Sparks Racing)  

In contrast, Ann Jennifer, the 2020 champion who lost the title by a point last year, was involved in a three-way battle in the Girls race with Ryhana Bee (Axor Sparks Racing) and Lani Fernandez (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate). The trio exchanged leads before Jennifer managed to get ahead of the duo for a deserving win, her first of the season. Ryhana finished second and Lani, winner of the first round in Coimbatore last month, came in third.