A significant development that highlights the growth of Indian motorsport is the news that Narain Karthikeyan’s team,NK Racing, will field a car in the Formula BMW Asia series.
Team NK heads for Formula BMW Asia; JK looks to bring in F3
CHENNAI: News of Vijay Mallya buying and fielding a refurbished team in F1 has made the headlines. While that displays Indian corporate might, a smaller albeit more significant development that highlights the growth of Indian motorsport is the news that Narain Karthikeyan’s team — NK Racing — will field a car in the Formula BMW Asia series this year.
Speed NK Racing has won the Formula Rolon category — the premier class with the most powerful cars — of the JK Tyre National championship hands down this year.
“It is the next logical step for the team. We have Indian mechanics that have developed into able hands for any team up to the F3 level. These will also help out the A1 India team under the supervision of experts from overseas,” says Karthikeyan.
The induction of Indians into the lower echelons of teams racing abroad will in turn ensure that the craft of setting up a race car permeates down to the grass roots.
From the inaugural edition of the JK championship a decade ago to this edition there has been a spurt of interest in Indian racing the likes of which promises a revolution in the years to come.
“There are 540 applications to join our driving schools. The growth has swamped us and I am wondering just how to accommodate all these people,” says Akbar Ebrahim who’s company Meco Motorsports runs three-day training programmes for both racing and karting.
Another encouraging aspect of this year’s championship has been the emergence of young winners like Aditya Patel and Ashwin Sundar who have made a successful transition from karting.
“This is a healthy sign as it reflects that now we have begun to get a system in place. The world over good karters make for better drivers since they begin very young,” says Karthikeyan. Patel will be moving on to BMW Asia next year.
Now that the drivers are emerging so is the possibility of better and bigger events. “The next step for us is to get an F3 race in February next year. The broader vision is to make India an integral part of the Asian racing calendar,” says JK Industries MD Dr Raghupati Singhania who originally came up with the idea of his company building up an indigenous series.
The why of it is also pretty clear in Singhania’s mind: “We found cricket too overcrowded and we felt that it would be better to use a dynamic sport like racing to build our brand image. Then, the feedback from the track actually allows us to make better tyres.”
It has been learnt that JK is planning to bring in a round of the Asian Festival of Speed to India next year. The AFOS comprises of the Formula V6 Asia, Asian Touring Car Series, Formula BMW Asia Series and Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Series.
There is concrete buzz about a street race of the A1 series coming to India too. Indian racing which invited disdain in the mainstream press for years has now begun to come of age.
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