Chennai, June 15 (IANS) New Delhi’s Philippos Matthai brought into play all his vast experience and undoubted driving skills to win outright in four categories in the Vamcy Merla Chennai Gravel Fest which doubled up as the second round of FMSCI Indian National Autocross Championship (INAC) 2025 at the Madras International Circuit, here on Sunday.

Matthai, driving his INRC 2 Polo car, blitzed quality fields in the premier INAC 1 and INAC 2 categories in both of which he won the Open and 2000 classes to stamp his authority on the event as he also put in the fastest time of one minute, 38.880 seconds over the 1.8 kms track which was a mix of dirt, gravel and tarmac.

The Delhi ace was in a league of his own as he held off his arch-rivals which included top guns Syed Salman (Mysuru), Arnav Pratap Singh (Gurugram), former National Rally champion Chetan Shivram (Bengaluru) and Vaibhav Marathe (Ponda) all of whom finished on podium in the four classes.

Reflecting on his performance, Matthai said: “I am very happy to have won in four classes. We achieved what we had set out to do. The track was a bit tricky in the early part with water puddles in some of the corners after overnight rains. However, the track dried up and became a bit rough in the latter half of the day. I didn’t participate in the first round in Chikmagaluru last month. So, it was a good result here. I now look forward to the next round in Coimbatore.”

Meanwhile, Syed Salman also enjoyed a fruitful outing as he topped the INAC 2 up to 1650cc and up to 1450cc classes for a fine double.

Davangere’s Shivani Pruthvi won in the Ladies class ahead of Chennai’s Nivetha Jessica and Anusha NS from Bengaluru while Gowtham CP (Chikkamagaluru) topped the INAC 3 Open category.

Hyderabad’s Sundeep K, who finished eighth in the INAC 1 Unrestricted Open category, was adjudged “Best Novice” driver.

–IANS

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