Honda Stunner Cup: Round Two

  • Jul 14, 2009
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The Kari Motor Speedway was buzzing with the sound of revving motors and enthusiastic racers for the Honda Stunner Cup. It was a perfect start to a perfect race weekend. Varad More reports...

The weather at the Kari Motor Speedway indicated that heavy showers were to be expected soon, but as the motorsport fraternity gathered at the circuit on last Friday, the cloud cover gave way to the sun and the race-track gleamed under sunlight. Second round of the Honda Stunner Cup which runs as a support race to the UCAL Rolon National Racing Championship was held last weekend at the Kari Motor Speedway Circuit in Chettipalayam, near Coimbatore. This time the Honda Stunner Cup saw significant increase in the number of participants but it was kept limited to the first sixty entries only. Riders came from across the country and Honda also provided some of them with full riding gear except helmets on a rental basis.

In addition to the Stunner Cup, which was only for Novice (newcomers) riders, Honda also organized a race for Intermediate and Expert class of riders. The professional racers were handed over thirteen CBR 150 motorcycles imported from Thailand specifically for the Honda Stunner Cup. Out of the thirteen riders, only the top ten fastest riders from the qualifying session were entitled to race in the CBR150 class. However, this time the CBR150 motorcycles were injected with stage one performance upgrades ordered by HMSI directly from Endurance Systems, Thailand.

The Thailand-based company is known for developing high-quality performance parts for the Honda CBR150. The race-bikes allotted this time for the CBR class, had a modified ECU coupled with a stage one-free flow exhaust system and rear-set pegs. However, the bikes were still running old tyres from last round and this severely restricted the riders from making use of the additional horsepower.

Honda Stunner Race One:

Once the qualifying session was completed on Friday, the fifteen fastest riders were short listed for the two races. As the lights went off for the first race on Saturday, all the riders shot off the line with Renn Johnson and last round's second place finisher A Prabhu, engaging in a dog fight right from the first lap. Both carried good pace but A Prabhu made a few mistakes in the last two laps of the 6-lap race but Johnson continued with his form from start to finish taking home the victory while Prabhu had to settle for second spot. M Anand took the third place on the podium while most of the other riders on the grid failed to match the pace of the front runners.

Stunner Race 1 Results:
1- Renn Johnson
2 - A Prabhu
3 - M Anand

Honda Stunner Race Two:

The second race of the Stunner Cup saw a lot of excitement as new riders emerged from the back and fought for second and third place. Renn Johnson was once again the race leader from start of the lap and eventually pocketed the win. A Prabhu was missing from the action as the poor lad got injured in a crash during one of his UCAL Rolon National races in the morning session. Once A Prabhu was out of contention, R Karthik Raj and Yogehswaran P were seen fighting for second place throughout the race. Finally, R Karthik managed to keep Yogeshwaran behind him and successfully finished in second place forcing Yogeshwaran P to settle for third.

Stunner Race 2 Results:
1 - Renn Johnson
2 - R Kartik Raj
3 - Yogeshwaran P

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Honda CBR150 Race:

The CBR150 class had only one race, which was held on Sunday afternoon after the Stunner race two. On the pole in the CBR 150 race was last round's winner, Sham Shankar followed by Emmanuel Jebaraj in second place while ZigWheeler Varad More qualified in third place on the grid. Shankar gunned for the lead right from the start of the race with Jebaraj close on his heels. Varad More made a mistake on the start-line as the lights went off and was relegated to the back of the pack to tenth place. Sham Shankar quickly ran away in the lead and maintained his first place throughout the 6-lap race. Jebaraj was relegated to fourth place as R Deepak and Satishkumar moved up to second and third places, respectively, and then finished the race in the same order.

Honda CBR150 Results:
1 - Shyam Shankar
2 - R Deepak
3 - A Satish Kumar

It is a great move from Honda in order to promote the sport and leisure-side of motorcycling amongst masses and its customers. With the increased number of participants for each round, they sure have got the formula right. Yamaha too has shown similar interest and this year Yamaha India also introduced a factory team in the national racing championship. From the enthusiasm seen in the Honda pits and amongst the Honda officials at this round, there is a good possibility that Honda will also soon follow Yamaha's footsteps and enter a full-fledged factory team in the UCAL Rolon National Racing Championship. Are we looking at HRC India? Amen.

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