CHENNAI, September 5: Hyderabad ace Rahil Pillarisetty, in tremendous form this season astride a super-quick Yamaha R3, led a 1-2 for his team RACR Castrol Power1, in the qualifying session of the premier class Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open as the third round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship commenced at the Madras International Circuit, here on Friday.

While a pole position for 27-year-old Rahil Pillarisetty barely raised an eyebrow, his team-mate, Bengaluru’s Anish Damodar Shetty, returning to competition after a three-year break, delivered the big surprise by finishing second, ahead of defending champion Sarthak Chavan, the 18-year-old from Pune and the lead rider for Petronas TVS Racing.

Less than a second separated the front-row trio to set up an exciting race on Saturday. Behind the three was multiple National champion Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power1), the man behind the Yamaha R3 preparations and who at 45, remains a force to reckon with.

The other qualifiers for pole position in their respective National Championship categories were Hyderabad’s Rajender Beedani (MAI Racing), the championship leader in Stock 165cc (Novice), Mohamed Mikhail (Mad Rabbit Racing) from Tiruvallur in Stock 301-400cc (Novice) and local challenger Kamal Navas (Rockers Racing) in Super Stock 165cc.

Chennai riders, Manoj Yesuadian, Mohan Babu P and Kaushik Subbaiah Ganesan qualified for the front row, in that order, in the Expert (Apache RR 310) category of the Petronas TVS One-Make Championship while Jagathishree Kumaresan, also from Chennai, took pole position in the Women (Apache RTR 200) category.

In the Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup (Honda CB300F), Solomon R (Chennai), who heads the leaderboard in this category, snatched pole position ahead of Jammu’s Raivat Dhar while former National girls champion Ann Jennifer (Chennai) completed the front row of the grid for Saturday’s race.

The results (Qualifying – 3 best laps):

Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open: 1. Rahil Pillarisetty (Hyderabad, RACR Castrol Power1) (01min, 47.975secs); 2. Anish Damodar Shetty (Bengaluru, RACR Castrol Power1) (01:48.546); 3. Sarthak Chavan (Pune, Petronas TVS Racing) (01:48.728).

Super Stock 200cc Intermediate: 1. Kamal Navas (Chennai, Rockers Racing) (02:05.476); 2. Mohamed Samrul Zubair (Hyderabad, Motul Sparks Racing) (02:05.910); 3. Vyshak Shoban (Chennai, Speed Up Racing) (02:05.948).

Stock 301-400cc (Novice): 1. Mohamed Mikhail (Tiruvallur, Mad Rabbit Racing) (01:59.017); 2. Jagadeesh Nagaraj (Bengaluru, Motul Sparks Racing) (01:59.251); 3. Kamal Navas (Chennai, Rockers Racing) (02:01.015).

Stock 165cc (Novice): 1. Rajender Beedani (Hyderabad, MAI Racing) (02:08.217); 2. CS Kedarnadh (Tirupati, Motul KTM Gusto Racing India) (02:08.349); 3. Amit Prasad (Mysuru, Mad Rabbit Racing) (02:09.868).

Petronas TVS One-Make Championship:

Expert (Apache RR 310): 1. Manoj Yesuadiayan (Chennai) (01:55.669); 2. Mohan Babu P (Chennai) (01:56.351); 3. Kaushik Subbiah Ganesan (Chennai) (01:56.478).

Women (Apache RTR 200): 1. Jagathishree Kumaresan (Chennai) (02:11.988); 2. Elakiya Ravi (Chennai) (02:12.630); 3. SP Shuria (Bengaluru) (02:13.044).

Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup (Honda CB300F): 1. Solomon R (Chennai) (02:05.931); 2. Raivat Dhar (Jammu) (02:06.167); 3. Ann Jennifer (Chennai) (02:07.495).