The question of how long a driver should linger in a developmental racing series is a relevant one for the Indian scenario.
“I don’t think they will let me take part in a fourth straight season!” laughed the JK Racing India Series champion Vishnu Prasad when asked about whether he would be seen racing in India again in 2016. “I think I should have enough to finally race abroad, most likely in the Porsche Carerra Cup Asia.”
For those who have followed Prasad’s career in India through karting and single seat racing, this comes as welcome news for the driver who forgoed the chance to race in the 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R Cup in Europe when he was unable to raise his share of the budget required to take up the chance after winning the Polo Cup in India the previous year.
Since then, he has been one of a few familiar faces to have been racing in LBG F4, FB02 cars and national karting too. Some feel that this practice is to the detriment of new talent that is unable to find a drive in these series on account of the presence of drivers who have become regulars.
There is a different way to look at this of course. The very experienced drivers who win year after year provide a benchmark for newcomers to emulate. Although there is a way to have your cake and eat it too, so to speak.
After enforcing a two year cap on a driver’s participation in karting and single-seat racing, that driver can be brought back to occasionally take part as a guest driver which would allow newcomers a way to gauge their capability.
While there may be those who say that there is not enough in the way of new talent in Indian motorsport as yet, clearing the way for potential hopefuls is the only way one can even have the slimmest chance of finding them.
WHERE TO MOVE ON TO?
But therein lies another problem. What is there for drivers in India to move on to? The Indian Touring Car Championship is more or less a means for well-heeled enthusiasts to spend lakhs upon lakhs to race in a field where most of the cars are not even in production anymore. Indian manufacturers have not, as yet, built up the nerve to compete with each other while fielding or supporting racers either in modified production cars or shell racers. It’s hard to import or even build the kind of infrastructure needed to support that at the moment.
How realistic is it for drivers to follow Prasad’s lead and try to race in sportscar racing series in Asia or even Europe?
Single seat racing is a dream that only seems to be reserved for the likes of Jehan Daruvala and Arjun Maini, who – with the exception of karting - skipped most of what is there to offer in single seat development series in India.
One can’t expect too much of JK Tyre or even MRF in this regards as it is manufacturers that need to take the lead in the development of competition in Indian motorsport rather than just piggy-back on the concept of single-make racing.
Getting into such chicken and egg arguments in India can be exhausting. But most of the capital required for motorsport has been in the keep of manufacturers and its well past time that they used it.
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