Chennai, The MRF Challenge, one of top single-seater racing championships of Asia, which over the past seven seasons has evolved into an incubator of talent, is coming home to the Madras Motor Racing Track (MMRT) here this weekend. The third and concluding round of the winter series will be held from Friday.
The two flyaway rounds in Dubai (November) and Bahrain (December) showcased the skills of emerging talent like Belgium’s Max Defourny and British girl Jamie Chadwick.
The two, in their twenties, between them have won six of the 10 races in the two rounds. Defourny leads the championship with 201 points ahead of Chadwick (183) and German teenager Andreas Estner (124). As such, there is plenty at stake in the final round with five races to be run.
Joining the championship for the final round are Saudi Arabia’s rising female talent Reema Al Juffali, who recently won the TRD 86 Cup in Abu Dhabi, and 17-year old Glenn van Berlo, from the Netherlands, who is moving to single-seater racing from karting.
The busy weekend will also witness the first round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Racing Championship 2019 with the MRF Formula 1600, saloon cars in three categories, including the top-end Indian Touring Cars and the Formula LGB 1300, which has attracted 20 entries.
One of the highlights of the weekend card is the trio of topnotch FMX riders, Hannes Akermann (Germany), Shaun Webb and David Ford (both from Australia), who will be performing heart-stopping aerial stunts.