National Racing: Hemanth Muddappa gunning for more titles

Bengaluru, July 21 (IANS) The fastest Indian rider and a nine-time Indian National champion, Hemanth Muddappa of Mantra Racing will be eager to add more National titles under his belt, as he begins campaign in the 2022 season of the MMSC FMSCI Indian National Drag Championship at the Madras International Circuit (MIC), in Chennai on Saturday.

In an unprecedented move, Bengaluru-based champion will be riding in four classes this season, including the above 851 to 1050cc class, which is now a supporting race.

This year Hemanth will also take part in the 550-850cc class, and with the re-introduction of the Unrestricted Open category as a Championship class, the Drag Nationals will now allow Hemanth Muddappa to gun for historic 12 National titles. He is preparing hard and has tested a Kawasaki ZX6R which is the new addition to his armoury besides his Suzuki Hayabusa and BMW S1000RR, between whom he bagged a rich haul of nine National titles from 2016 in two different classes.

The combination of Mantra Racing and Hemanth Muddappa has created record after record at every circuit in India and all the top National records in the top-two classes, stand in his name making him the fastest Indian motorsports athlete. A high-performance rider, he trains hard both on physical fitness and mental conditioning with a focus on his riding skills.

"We started right after the last round and put in sustained efforts. One of the classes is not there anymore but with the introduction of a new class, I will be taking part in four classes. The aim is to go for three National titles this year," said the confident rider from Coorg, who is also a champion at the fmsci-licensed Lonavala event, that is run on a proper quarter-mile format. That track record is also in Muddappa's name.

Known as "LightningR1", for his superfast runs, he holds both the National records in '851 to 1050cc class' and the '1051cc and above class' which he bettered last season at the now rechristened Madras International Circuit.

From the original four rounds, the Promoters Madras Motor Sports Club reduced the calendar to three rounds. The second round will be on November 5 & 6 and the final round is scheduled to be held at the same venue on Dec 17 and 18. The length of MMSC Track is 302 metres (1000 feet) for vehicles above 550cc and for all other classes it is 402 metres.

The "Braking Distance" is 451.2m for vehicles above 550cc and 351.2m for all other vehicles. The new class of 4-stroke unrestricted has been given National Championship status. There will be eight different classes including a Ladies class for 4Stroke stock upto 165cc bikes. Based on the total points allotted in each round, the National champion will be declared after the third round.