The New Indian Express ·
Rahil Pillarisetty sizzles for pole position in open class
Chennai: On another hot and humid day, riders scorched the Madras International Circuit here on Friday. Hyderabad’s Rahil Pillarisetty (RACR Castrol Power1) qualified for pole position in the premier Super Sport 301-400cc Open class as the second round of the MRF Indian National Racing Challenge 2W – 2026 commenced here. The 28-year-old Rahil put in a hot lap of one minute, 48.806 seconds for pole position ahead of Chennai teenager Rakshith Dave (Petronas TVS Racing) and Bengaluru’s Savion Sabu (Mad Rabbit Racing).
Rahil’s two arch-rivals, Sarthak Chavan (Pune), who is on a flight back from Europe, and Chiranth Vishwanath (Bengaluru), missed both practice and qualifying sessions. The Petronas TVS Racing team pair is expected to reach Chennai tomorrow, in time for the race which they will start from the back of the grid.
The others to qualify for pole position in their respective classes were KK Anandhu (Veedol C2 Racing) from Chennai in Stock 301-400cc Novice; R Hari Haran (RACR Castrol Power1) from Coimbatore in Stock 165cc Novice; Venkatesan Iyyappan (M3 Torque Motorsports) from Chennai in Pro-Stock 200cc.
