5th Round of UCAL ROLON National Road Racing championship

R15 v/s RTR

Due to the rain a few races were postponed during the 4th round of the UCAL ROLON National road racing championship. Hence the 5th round of UCAL ROLON nations started off on Friday 31st OCT 08 instead of the regular Saturday / Sunday schedule. Friday saw some of the races that were postponed from the previous round.

Maybe this was blessings for some and bane for some J this weekend also saw some of the riders riding more than their stamina due to the extra races .In all MMST track witnessed a total of 16 races and 8 qualifiers over 3 days. The highlight of the weekend was Honda racing coming up with their one make race with Honda stunner and Honda CBR 150.

This weekend was crucial for quite some riders in terms of the championship. The 1^st,2^nd and 3^rd place of Group D 4S was separated by just 1 point between each other and the Group B 4S 250CC was also separated by just few points for 1^st and second position with 4 races to go in the weekend.

Race report

Thursday 30^th OCT 08 - Session1

In spite of this being a working day the track witness almost full strength of riders for the P&P (pay and practice) sessions. Some of the noted riders I could find on track were T K Vishwanath (T K Vishwa), Sriskandarajah (Sri), Sudhakar keshavan , Vinoth from team Anya racing, Deepak & P Rajini from Team Libra, Rajini, Harry Sylvester & Sankar from team TVS Racing. Other prominent riders seen on the track were Sameer V (Killer) from team Red Roosters Racing (RRR), Vivek Pillai & Deva kumar from the 2 stroke fame. Yours truly from team Rolling Thunder Racing (RTR) was also used the session to get some good practice.

Team Anya racing again were seen with new avatar during the weekend. All riders had customized leathers with Anya Racing logo and rider names inscribed. The time keeper David had upgraded himself from mobile phone stop watch to a professional stop watch all support staff were equipped with wireless sets. Anya racing riders from other motor sports (dirt / motor cross etc) were also present during the entire weekend.

This session also saw shouldering around by some riders and the fists were out for a different game between two racing teams. This was observed at C3 corner and the officials from both the teams were seen running towards the C3. This was definitely not the healthy start of the race.

Session2 - This was more of formal practice for various groups. Earlier in the day Sameer V developed a puncher followed by a bent rim on his rear wheel during the practice sessions. This actually reduced the practice session close to zero for Sameer. Manged to get a his rear tyre exchanged with his friend

By 16:30 the Honda Stunners were out on the Pits for practice sessions. A whole bunch of regulars were seen registering for the practice session of stunner. Honda Motors had bought in 15 stunners and 10 CBR 150s for the weekend races. The Stunners were available for the public (Registered via Honda dealers across country) total 45 riders i.e. 15 bikes with 3 rounds and CBR 150s were reserved for expert riders i.e. any rider who has registered a podium finish this year at any national event.

The practice sessions for the stunners were on the short Track (2.1 Km) and the average timing was around 1 min 28Secs, most riders were experienced and were not new to track. Shortly after the Stunner practice the Honda CBR 150s were out on the track this time on the long track (3.7Kms). Some noted names on CBR 150 were Emmanuel Clarke, R Deepak (Libra), Emmanuel Jebbraj(Ex-TVS), Deva Kumar (2 Stroke leader) and Umesh Babu.I manually clocked a couple of riders including Clarke. The average timing was around 2mins16secs and Clarke was clocking around 2 min 15sec.

Looks like winter has set in early the track was getting dark by 05:45 p.m. the track was officially closed at 18:00 hours.

Friday 31st OCT 08 - Session 1

The day started off with briefing for Honda Stunner riders as today saw some of the riders who were new to track. There were riders from biking magazines too. This was followed by briefing for Honda CBR riders.

The Clarke of Course (CoC) was Amit Arora and his deputy was Siddharth Bose on safety car.

The stunner riders were divided into 4 groups between 10:00 to 12 noon the groups had practice and qualifying sessions. Since Friday was working day most riders who had registered for the one make race did not turn around for the qualifiers. The races were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

Session 2

This session saw some unfinished business been completed from the last round of races which was stopped due to heavy rains. Some highlights of the session were the Group D 4S 165cc Intermediate & Expert class, Group B 4S 250cc & 165cc (Expert class) and the Group D 2S 165cc intermediate where Vivek Pillai was anyways leading the championship.

Its sometimes amazing to see the enthusiasm within theses riders in Moped class and 2S class, where most of the riders are so involved into the sport there is no lack of motivation even if it’s just 5 riders in Moped class or the 17 riders in 2S group D novice category (All Yamaha RX135). The prize money is no great nor is the media publicity, But still they are with full force - the tuners, the mechs , the supporters …. Hats off to their enthusiasm. When I spoke to one of the moped riders about this all he said was ” I work hard and save enough to race 3 rounds in Chennai and cannot afford to travel till Coimbatore.”

The profile of riders varies from IT professionals like me and Sameer to local Mech from Chennai to LPG cylinder delivery boy from Coimbatore who spends the entire race weekend at the race track because he can’t afford a 300 bucks room rent for 3 days and we have high flyers on the super bikesJ. Even the skill set varies from riders like TK Vishwanath/ Rajini to Sameer V to me (who gets lapped quite often) WoW what a combination. Ultimately all of us are there for a sport.

Coming back to the race I was only keen to watch the group D 4S 165cc intermediate as Sameer from RRR and Shudhakar keshavan from Anya racing had locked horns for the championship no other group or class this close competitions.

The race was on time with sunny weather not too humid. The riders had taken their respective position on the grid and looking at the grid from the time controller office Bose sir made a comment ” It looks like a race between R15 and RTR” the first row on the grid had Sudhakar (Anya) , Sameer V (RRR), T K Vishwa and Sris (both from Anya ) on R15 and the rear grid with Rajini, Harry, Shayam Shankar (all from TVS) on RTR

R15 v/s RTR

The start was excellent for Sameer and he took a very good initial lead and tried maintain the same. Although Sri (Anya) was right behind he still managed to keep the lead. Meanwhile in the 3^rd Lap T K Visha crashed out C2 or C3 and did not finish the race. Sameer consolidated his lead thought the race finished 1^st overall and sudhakar keshavan (Anya) finishing second followed by Clarke who just returned back from his MSS championship. End of the race Sameer was now one point ahead of sudhakar (Anya) and one point behind Shyam (TVS) was second position in championships.

The next race to watch was the group B 165cc Expert class. They were just 4 riders here Rajini & Harry from TVS racing on their RTR and Sri & T K Vishwa of Anya racing on Yamaha R15. Sri took a excellent start and started leading the race right from the beginning. T K Vishwa was right behind him, by the end of Lap one Anya racers had clear lead and their bikes were actually performing far better than TVS RTRs. The race ended with Sri, Vishwa and Rajini taking up 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd Position respectively.

The final race to watch was the Group B 250cc 4S category where Vinoth (Anya) was leading the championship and is close competition was R Deepak (Libra) who was second in the championship. Other riders in this category were P Rajini (Libra) Sri (Anya) and T K Vishwa (Anya).

The Race started off with Vinoth leading the pack and followed by Sri and T K Vishwa. Deepak and P Rajini from Libra were tailing. By the end of lap one Deepk had over taken Vishwa to reach 3^rd position with Vinod still leading the race. Rajini P was bit slow was 4-5 seconds behind T K Vishwa. By end of second lap we did not see Vishwa and heard he had crashed out. Depaak was still in third position but he had his best timing in this lap, It was very evident that Sri (Anya) was slowing the race by blocking Deepak and closing all opportunities for Deepak to reach Vinoth, I have to say it’s a true team work and P Rajini was last in the pack with 10 seconds behind the race leader. He was just finishing the race to earn points and retain his third position in the championship ;). Finally Vinoth , Sri and Deepak finished the race with 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd position respectively.

The day ended with a good note for Sameer (RRR) and Vinoth, Looked like team Anyaians were getting ready for a night out in working on their bikes. Since we were staying at the same hotel as Anya racing team we could see the buzz in team Anya J

Saturday 1st NOV 08 - Round 5 of UCAL ROLON National championship

Session 1 - With all pending races completed from 4^th round we were ready for the 5^th and final round of races. Unlike to all other race weekends we had the day starting off with qualifiers (generally the qualifiers are in session2). This early schedule was to accommodate the Honda 1 make races.

First qualifiers of the day was the Group D 165cc 4 stroke Intermediate / Experts (My favorite). It is the regular 10 min practice and 10 min qualifiers. Early morning track witnessed by some god timings clocked by riders. Once green flag was out for qualifiers the bikers started pushing the machines harder. In 3^rd minute of the qualifier Sudhakar (Anya) clocked the best timing of 1min15.179 secs and till the 9^th minute he was leading the qualifiers. Sameer on his last lap just in time for the checkered flag manger to clock the best timing for the qualifiers at 1min 14.774Secs. Mean while Sri (Anya) and Harry tailing Sameer finished 2^nd and 3^rd respectively and this moved Sudhakar to 4^th on the grid. The race for this category was scheduled for the second half of the day.

Second qualifier of the day was for Group A (Super bikes) in 600cc and 1000cc categories. Some noted names like Pancho etc were missing in the list, But Prem a new riders was riding Pancho’s bike. The pole in the 600 cc category was Sarosh and Alok in 1000cc category. The race was scheduled for Sunday.

I really did not follow any other qualifiers. The day ended pretty late at aroung 5:45 p.m any more qualifiers the bikers had switch their headlights on

Kindly wait I will complete the race report once I am back to Bangalore, currently in Delhi on official work. (I will complete this based on the feedback).