Veer Patel upstages Aravind in National Supercross

Pune, April 30 (IANS) Veer Patel of Baroda steered his Honda CRF 250 with much panache to clinch the title in the showpiece Foreign Open class ahead of defending champion Aravind KP in the 2012 National Supercross championship here.

The season began Sunday with a bang with Patel beating an established team of TVS Racing Bangalore as individual entrants made hay in the prime event.

In the contest that left a packed crowd in awe when the riders negotiated the challenging 750-metre track that was largely dry, Patel made sure that he was up to the task in besting company-backed team.

For Aravind, it was bad luck as he made a messy start and was pushed to the last position in the Moto 1 before he fought his way back up to finish third.

In Moto 2 also, Aravind's TVS bike was much slower than the Hondas of Patel and CD Jinan of Kerala, who finished in the second position behind the Baroda rider with 34 points.

Aravind, however, had the solace of winning the Indian Experts Group B class 3 on his TVS RTR 160, collecting full 20 points. TVS Racing Bangalore made a clean sweep in this class as Natraj Rajanna and Harith Noah took up the second and third positions behind Aravind.

A new kid emerged in the Private Foreign Open Group A category when Javed Shailk rode his KTM SXF 250 to the chequered flag twice during the day with almost no one providing him the real challenge.

Goa boy Javed collected full 40 points from Pune leg with his statemate, Allen Sequiera coming in second with 34 points. Jatin Jain of Nagpur was third and settled with 30 points.

The results:

Foreign Open Group A: 1. Veer Patel (Honda CRF 250, Baroda); 2. CD Jinan (Honda CRF 250, Kerala); 3. Aravind KP (TVS RTR 250FX, TVS Racing, Bangalore).

Novice Group C: 1. Abhijit Shetty (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing, Bangalore); 2. Sachin Ghorpade (TVS Fiero, Kolhapur); 3. Suhail Ahmed (Yamaha RX 135, Bangalore).

Indian Experts Group C: 1. Natraj Rajanna (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing Bangalore); 2. Madhu S (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing); 3. Naresh VS (Yamaha RX 135, Bangalore).

Private Foreign Open Group A: 1. Javed Shaikh (KTM SXF 250, Goa); 2.Allen Sequiera (Kawasaki 250F, Goa); 3. Jatin Jain (Kawasaki 250F, Nagpur).

Indian Experts Group B: 1.Aravind KP (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing); 2. Natraj Rajanna (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing); 3. Harith Noah (TVS RTR 160, TVS Racing).

Private Experts Group C: 1. Naresh VS (Yamaha RX 135, Bangalore); 2. Sachin Ghorpade (TVS Fiero, Kolhapur); 3. Vishal Barguje (Yamaha RXZ 135, Pune).

Best Rider of Day: Veer Patel.