Debutant Josh Hill Dominates MRF F200 International Challenge at 2013 MMSC–FMSCI National Racing Championship

February 09, 2013: British driver Josh Hill, son of 1996 Formula One Champion Damon Hill, dominated on debut at the 2013 MMSC–FMSCI National Racing Championship at the Madras Motor Race Track. Hill, who made his debut this weekend, beat pole sitter Jon Lancaster and Formula 2 Champion Luciano Bacheta to win Race 1 of the MRF F2000 International Challenge. Other action at the opening round of the MMSC–NRC saw Ashwin Sundar winning the MRF FF1600 race, with Arjun Balu and N. Leelakrishnan winning in the Indian Touring Car Championship and Feroze Khan winning both races in the Indian Junior Touring Car Championship.

Race 1 of the day saw Josh Hill jumping pole sitter Jon Lancaster at the start and then pulling away comfortably to win on his first visit to the circuit. Luciano Bacheta, starting 3rd on the grid, was on the tail of Lancaster throughout the race but could not find a way past, finally finishing less than a second behind his compatriot. Alice Powell, who started 5th on the grid, was given a drive–through penalty for jumping the start and fell back to 12th position. GP3 driver Conor Daly, who had a miserable qualifying session and started 13th on the grid, passed Indian Parthiva Sureshwaren on the penultimate lap to finish in a brilliant 6th place. This gave him pole position for the reverse grid based second race.

Race 2 of the day saw the opening round of the 2013 Saloon car race. In the ITC race, reigning champion Arjun Balu continued from where he left off last year by winning ahead of V Ramnarayan and Siddhart Kishore. In the IJTC race, S. Feroze Khan held off S. Narendran and S. Sreeram to win the first race of the season.

Race 3 of the day featured the returning MRF FF1600 cars to the MMSC–NRC. Ashwin Sundar, who started on pole, led from start to finish to win for Team Motorev ahead of the returning Amer Beg and Ajay Kini. Sudarshan Rao, who qualified 2nd of the grid failed to complete a single lap as he was forced to retire.

In the second MRF F200 International Challenge, American Conor Daly comfortably led from start to finish to take victory by over 11 seconds. There was a close battle for the positions behind with Belgium driver Sam Dejonghe finished in 2nd place, just ahead of a chasing Jordan King, Luciano Bacheta and Jon Lancaster, who were all separated by less than a second. Race 1 winner Josh Hill finished in 6th place.

The last race of the day saw Round 2 of the Saloon car race. In the ITC race, veteran N. Leelakrishnan beat favourite Arjun Balu and V Ramnarayan. It was a closely contested race with Leelakrishnan and Arjun Balu battling all the way through. In the IJTC category, S. Feroze Khan won his second race of the day, ahead of Raja Rajan and Ashish Ramaswamy.

MMSC has been making regular changes to the MMRT in order to constantly improve the facilities. Mr. Anthony Hieatt, Technical consultant to Dallara, designer of the MRF F200 cars, commented, "Since we first tested here in September, there has been vast improvement at the Madras Motor Race Track. I have been coming to India for many years and the track is easily at its best right now. We are also looking at the possibility to do some testing here in the coming months, and also bringing our drivers to train and develop them. It is important to continue to maintain these circuits to further develop motorsport in India"

Racing will resume tomorrow with the MRF F2000 International Challenge, MRF FF1600, ITC and IJTC in action.