Ikshan crowned overall winner with a triple win; Double for Banteilang: Motocross Nationals

Bengaluru, September 23, 2025: Talented teenage rider Ikshan Shanbhag from the stables of
Petronas TVS Racing won all the three motos to claim the overall honours and the Best Rider tag
with the fastest time of the first round in the AUTO MAN fmsci Indian National Motocross
Championship, run on a custom-made track at the Tribal Adventure Café, about 50 km from here on
Sunday.

Another TVS rider Banteilang Jyrwa of Shillong, Meghalaya, won in two categories. He beat
teammate Imran Pasha on countback after both won a moto each in the Indian Open class. Another
teammate Sachin Ignatius made it a podium sweep for TVS, which supported their supercross riders,
as private entries. Jyrwa went on to claim the Indian Expert class ahead of Kathir and Faraz Pasha for
a grand double. Only lady rider, Aleen Sheikh impressed with a third place in the second moto of
Junior MX1.

The Satara-born 18-year-old Ikshan, crashed in the very opening lap when he was running fourth
behind multiple National supercross champion, Pune’s Rugved Barguje and Jinendra Sangave of
Kolhapur. He recovered quickly and picked up his bike, but saw himself at the back of the pack.
Undaunted, he passed each one of them with clinical precision and skill by the 10 th minute-mark, to
take the lead and kept increasing the gap to take a scintillating come-from-behind victory.

Astride a TVS TR 300 in the premier MX1 Foreign Open for Group A bikes, the son of former rally
rider and driver, Shanbhag, Ikshan missed the hole shot again in the second moto and fell behind
Rugved but lost no time as he overtook his teammate with a skilful negotiation of the whoops, a
series of long, evenly spaced bumps or rollers. Thereafter, he led for a rather comfortable victory
and also clocked the best lap with a time of 1min, 06sec on the 1.1km track to become the fastest
rider of Round 1.

In the third moto, it was former MiniGP champion Jinendra Sangave, who took the hole shot and
Ikshan once again saw himself trailing in second place at the start. However, he overtook him in the second lap and endured a thrilling fight with Rugved as the top-two riders in the country exchanged lead over five times, before a contact after the double jump in the 15 th minute, saw them crash as
the former cut the corner too early. But it was Ikshan, who rose again quickly like a phoenix and
sprinted to the chequered flag for a well-deserved triple in the maiden round of the newly-
sanctioned National Motocross championship promoted by Auto Man and backed by VM Sports
Foundation.

Reinvented after a couple of decades, the National Championship is promoted by popular bike Abijit
Shetty, the man behind Auto Man, and organised by Ramakrishna Race Performance Management,
in association with DJ Design Racing. “The event is well organised much better than my expectations.
It is blessing that we finally have a Motocross Nationals, my favourite,” said the 2019 Indian
Supercross National champion in Junior class, Ikshan, whose ultimate goal is to race in the
Motocross Grand Prix world championship. Rugved Barguje came second in all the three motos to
stand second in Round 1 ahead of Jinendra Sangave, in third with two podiums and a fifth.

Bhairav won Class 5 Junior MX1 for 12-to-14-year riders (85cc bikes), beating Sujan and Chaitanya
Joshi while Vismay defeated Armaan Khan and Rithin Sai A in the Class 6 Junior MX2 for riders below
11 years on 65cc bikes. The highlight of the event is the presence of the only female rider Aleena

Mansur Shaikh, who has many trophies competing on equal footing with boys in supercross. She put
in an excellent ride at the inaugural Motocross round and took a podium in the second moto.
In the Class 2 Indian Novice class, Shailesh edged out Kathir though both won a moto each. Faraz
Pasha pipped experienced Sanjay Somashekar of VM Motorsports with a third and a fourth place to
finish overall third after Round 1.

“We are planning four more rounds and the winners will be declared maiden National Motocross
champions in different classes. I thank the organisers and sponsors, especially Mr Vamcy Merla for
the surprise rewards to the riders,” said Abijit Shetty, the promoter. The event which started after a
30 minute rain delay received praise from all the riders, “the event was run very professionally and
despite being the first time, the schedule was run in a professional manner and the flow was smooth
and comfortable for the riders. The arrangements including the track were technically superb,“ said
Ikshan.

“We were a bit worried with the initial drizzle but everything went on clock-wise. Our focus
was to provide the best sporting arena for the riders and I am glad we pulled it off as planned due to
the support from riders, teams, officials and the immense backing by the sponsor and promoter,”
said Durgesh of DJ Design Racing, the hardworking organisers.