Ten10 Racing had a wonderful weekend despite the blistering heat at MMRT, Sriperembudur. We had a hectic start with four motorcycles on the grid in the National Championship class and four motorcycles in the Honda CBR 250 class. It was a debut weekend for the Honda CBR 150s in the fully modified elite class and it was literally a shakedown session for the two motorcycles of Sarath Kumar #69 and Vivek Pillai #7 during the Friday practice sessions.

Qualifying practice:

Group C, Restricted modified class: Mathan Kumar #46 the double winner of Round 1 of Group C in Coimbatore managed to qualify in the sixth place in a 18 bike grid. A crash at the start of qualifying forced him to pit and miss majority of the session and he managed to secure sixth place only in the last few minutes of the session. Hari Krishnan #33 the rookie in the modified class had no such issues and managed to take 11th spot on the grid.

Group B Fully modified class: Ten10 Racing became the first team to run a Honda CBR150R in the elite fully modified class competing against the stiff competition of veterans TVS Racing and Motorev Yamaha Racing. Our ace rider Sarath Kumar #69 who also builds his own motorcycle and experienced racer Vivek Pillai #7 represented the team in this class. The Qualifying session proved to be tough with an all new setup and limited testing time. Despite the limited track time both the motorcycles were reliable and qualified fifth and sixth respectively.

Honda CBR 250 Cup: In the expert class of the Honda One Make race the team once again fielded four motorcycles including the three Asia Dream Cup representatives from India – Sarath Kumar, Rajiv Sethu, Hari Krishnan and Trichy Thriller Mathana Kumar. The surprise in Qualifying was Rajiv Sethu who qualified in second place in the first row and Mathana Kumar along side with him. Sarath who was struggling with his suspension managed to qualify fourth and Hari who made his debut in the 250 class qualified seventh.

Race 1, Saturday 11 July 2015:

Group C, Restricted modified class: Bad luck continued to plague Mathana Kumar #46 who was expected to continue his top form from Coimbatore as he suffered a crash after lap 1 and was classified DNF. However Hari’s first Group C race was a learning curve for him to understand and adapt to the more powerful 165CC motorcycles as compared to last year. He managed to finish tenth in the race.

Group B, Fully modified class: The return of the elite class to the National Championships saw a decent number of entries from various teams. It is considered one of the most exciting and advanced machine classes in the Indian two-wheeler racing. Ten10 Racing’s T10-15B built on Honda CBR150 made its debut in this class. Sarath #69 who started from the fifth position managed to get a good start and was able to tag himself with the third place racer, however with 2 laps remains an engine overheating problem pushed him back to secure the easy fourth place. Vivek on the other hand had to adjust to the newly built T10-15B and managed to retain his qualifying spot at No. 6.

Honda CBR 250 Cup: With all new regulations and regulated suspension the Honda CBR 250 Cup was a tough race for ADC Racers as they had to adapt the suspension setup which is different from what they are used to. Despite that Rajiv showed a lot of grit to fight for the second position during the race with the much experienced two – Sarath and Mathan. And the end of the race Sarath with his experience managed to stay ahead of Rajiv who had a great battle with his teammates right till the last corner. Sarath managed to secure the second spot in the last lap while Rajiv scored his first podium in the 250 class. Mathan who was with the lead pack missed his braking and lost to Rajiv during the last lap crossing the line in tenth place. Hari meanwhile in his debut race managed to finish in fourth place.

After Race 1 the team had to get back to drawing board to correct some setup issues and get ready for Race 2 on Sunday for all the classes.

Race 2, Sunday 12 July 2015:

Group C, Restricted modified class: Race 2 proved a much better result for both the Ten10 Racing riders as both managed to finish on the second and third spots on the podium. The fight for the second position was intense but Mathana Kumar with his experience managed to pick up second spot and Hari followed him closely to give Ten10 Racing a double podium in this class.

Group B, Fully modified class: Sarath went on to Race 2 with a few setup changes hoping to get a better advantage and managed to score the first podium in third place for T10-15B Honda CBR150R in the Nationals. Vivek however suffered a crash in the first lap and DNF.

Honda CBR 250 Cup: This time Sarath created a gap between him and his team mates who were fighting for third place. Teammates Mathan and Hari had an intense battle and the rookie Hari showed his ADC experience to pip Mathan and secure his first podium in the Honda CBR 250 Cup.

Overall with a few podiums across all the participating classes it was a satisfying weekend for the team. The Group C & B combined grid was a feast for the spectators with 27 motorcycles roaring across the line. Despite the heat there were many spectators and cheers for the riders especially on Sunday.

Now it’s back to drawing board to re-build the T10-15B for the fully modified class and make some corrections based on the data acquired during the race weekend.

World famous aRacer ECU supported our engine through the weekend to extract all the power required to fight for the podiums.

Despite the intense heat the bikes remained cool through the weekend with zero engine failure or break downs thanks to Motul Lubricants, our exclusive lubricant sponsors.

100 Plus provided us with the much required refreshment and energy which is a must during the hot race weekend at MMRT.

We had a guest in the pits this time; our protein sponsor Daaki visited our pits and paddock and enjoyed the race weekend.

With the next round not too far away, the work is already on to take the top spot of the podium. A few tweaks and upgrades and we surely expect a competitive package for Round 3 of the Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship.