It’s no secret that Indian motorsport is primarily located in the Southern states, but the Northern part of our country now has something that our southern comrades are rightly jealous of – the Buddh International Circuit. And while the Indian Grand Prix is the most talked about motorsport weekend in the country, the BIC recently played host to another thrilling event known as the ‘SIDVIN Festival of Speed’ on a beautiful wintery weekend. This festival included two major International Championships, the finale of the JK Racing Asia Series and Round 2 of the MRF Challenge 2012, as well as the final rounds of the most coveted national racing championships in India – the 3rd JK Tyre-Volkswagen Polo R Cup and the 15th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship – making it one of the biggest motorsports extravaganza to take place in India.
We were entertained to our hearts delight, as we saw 125 talented domestic and international drivers display their skills in 14 races that had nail-biting action, intense battles, and moments of glory – all on one of the world’s best F1 tracks. What was even more impressive was the number of people who came out over the weekend to watch the action. The main grandstand was packed with spectators on all three days, and the crowds were pumped up and excited to be there. They went hysterical when the stunt drivers put on a phenomenal show, and they cheered ever so loudly for the winners of all the races. It was truly a sight to behold, as we had never before seen a domestic motorsport event with such a fantastic crowd – in recent times anyway – and obviously the venue played a part in this, as did the variety of races.
The most exciting races had to be the MRF Challenge, as the F2000 single-seaters were the fastest cars, being driven by some very talented drivers – including Indian rally star, Gaurav Gill. The MRF Challenge, with their brand new Renault-powered racers, returned to the BIC after a very successful debut as a support race to the 2012 Indian Grand Prix. In Race 1, it was none other than Jordan King who grabbed first position. He was followed by American driver Conor Daly in second place. Luciano Bacheta, who is also the reigning Formula 2 Champion, finished third after a close battle with Conor. In Race 2, Jordan King proved unbeatable again as he won by completely destroying the competition. It was a very intense race in which the drivers were bumping and grinding their cars against each other. Japanese driver Yuudai Hingkawa crashed out after two laps, after a terrible accident that caused his car to flip three times – as a result of which the race was red-flagged, and had to be restarted. On the final day, Jordan King was absent from the grid as he had to return to the UK, and so in Race 3 the American GP3 champion Conor Daly finished in first, while the only female driver, Alice Powell, came in second place followed by Hector Hurst in third. The final race saw the Japanese driver, Hingkawa, make a superb comeback after his accident the previous day, as he emerged victorious in front of Sam Deonghe and Hector Hurst.
The final 4 rounds of the JK Racing Asia Series had just as much excitement. In the first race of the weekend, it was the 16 year-old South African rookie Aston Hare who finished in first place. Aston has been impressive throughout the entire season, and continued to showcase his talent in the last 4 races of the season as he won every race – except the last round, where he came in second behind Aditya Patel, who has also showed off his superb driving skills once again in front of a home crowd. Indian driver Akhil Khushlani and Malaysian Afiq Ikhwan completed the podium for the 13th Round, while Aditya Patel came in just behind in fourth. In Round 14, Aston Hare was victorious again, but had to fight harder as he was followed very closely by Afiq Ikhwan, who finished second, while Aditya Patel grabbed the final podium spot. Nabil Jeffri was the championship leader before the start of the first race, but he was penalized in both Round 13 and 14, which saw his lead reduce to just 12 points above Aston. Round 15 was a phenomenal race, as Aston cruised to victory yet again, followed by Akhil Khushlani in second, and Nabil in third. The championship came down to the wire before the final round, and it was very close indeed. Aditya Patel drove beautifully to finish in first place, ahead of Aston Hare who grabbed crucial points to finish second. Unfortunately, Nabil Jeffri had to retire due to technical difficulties, which meant that Aston Hare was crowned the 2012 JK Racing Asia Series Champion.
The VW Polo R Cup was also in its final stage, and Ameya Walavalkar put on yet another spectacular performance to be crowned the new champion of the 2012 season. Race 1 had probably the most electrifying finishes of all the races throughout the week. South African guest driver Jeffrey John Kruger started in pole, and had some intense battles with Ameya. Kruger was leading all the way through till the final lap, but suffered mechanical gremlins that allowed Ameya to get by him and finish just 0.745 seconds ahead of the South African. Race 2 had another surprise for us, as Prashanth Tharani Singh won his very first race of the season. Prashanth started in pole, and continued to fight off the other drivers to defend his position. Munjal Savla finished in a close second, followed by Kruger who fought his way from the back of the grid to grab a podium finish. It was a very exciting and entertaining final round. Ameya Walavalkar finished the season with 476 points, while Sandeep Kumar came in a distant second with 381 points.
It was a historic moment for the JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship, which comprises of Formula LGB 4, Indian Touring Car, and Indian Junior Touring Car classes. After the initial five rounds held at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore and the Madras Motorsport Race Track in Chennai, the 15th edition of the series made its debut at the Buddh International Circuit. In the famous Indian Touring Cars, it was Coimbatore racing and rally champion N Leelakrishnan taking the honours in Race 1, with some stunning driving. Finishing second was another veteran, B. Balavijay, followed by V Ramnarayanan. The second race proved crucial as the championship was still up for grabs. In Race 2, Leelakrishnan got his second successive win, however he was followed closely by Chennai based B Balavijay, who finished just 1.181 seconds behind, and was trailed by Sunny Siddhu. The eventual champion was Arjun Balu, racing for Tiger Sports with a total of 168 points. He finished just 1 point ahead of N Leelakrishnan.
Meanwhile, in the LGB Formula 4, it was Sarosh Hataria of Dark Don Racing who claimed a fantastic victory in Race 1, while Diljith TS who replaced championship leader and Dark Don Racing driver Ashwin Sundar, came in second but put in the fastest lap time. Chennai based Saran Vikram finished third in Race 1, but upped his game for the second race where he was victorious. Sarosh Hataria finished second after starting fourth on the grid followed, by guest driver Diljith TS. Even though he missed the last two races of the season, Ashwin Sundar was still crowned the champion of the 2012 season with a total of 186 points, as Sarosh Hataria was unable to grab enough points. Meanwhile, in the Indian Junior Touring car races, Mumbai based Fahad Kutty who has had a fantastic run this season grabbed first position in both races. However, championship leader S Feroze Khan finished just 0.473 seconds behind him in Race 1 and 1.17 seconds behind in Race 2, providing more close finishes. Feroze was still crowned champion of the 2012 season with 197 points, just 10 ahead of Kutty.
It was a spectacular weekend, and a clear win for Indian motorsports as the SIDVIN Festival of Speed was pulled off beautifully. The event saw two competing sponsors, JK Tyre and MRF, come together to take part in a wonderful event that brought the motoring head honchos together and delivered some breathtaking racing and entertainment to a growing number of motorsport enthusiasts. The SIDVIN Festival of Speed promises to be an annual event held at the BIC, and we can only hope to witness more races, better cars, and international quality Indian drivers at the next one. See you there next time!
Race of Champions
Hailed as the international motorsport event of the year, the Race of Champions 2012 was held at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok. Thousands of spectators cheered on 16 of the world’s biggest names in motorsport at the end of December, as they revved the engines on some of the world’s most sensational cars. Run over two days, with a number of different cars on a short twisty stadium circuit, the annual competition is by invitation only to past and present world title-holders from different championships.
This year also saw the addition of the famous Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo racecar selected for the first time as one of six models to feature in the races held in Bangkok. On Saturday was the ROC Nations Cup, where two drivers apiece would represent their country. Legendary F1 driver Michael Schumacher once again was paired with current F1 champion Sebastian Vettel for Team Germany. Both drivers performed very well and blew away the rest of the competition to claim their 6th ROC Nations Cup in a row.
They raced a mix of cars – including the Audi R8 LMS, VW Scirocco, Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo, KTM X-Bow, ROC Buggy, and the Toyota GT86 – on a purpose-built parallel track at the Rajamangala Stadium. To cap off a busy night of action, Schumacher and Vettel prevailed in the Grand Final against Team France’s Sébastien Ogier and Romain Grosjean. First Schumacher defeated Grosjean, then Vettel beat rally ace Ogier in the ‘battle of the Sebs.’
Meanwhile, in the individual Champion of Champions Cup held on Sunday night, it was French Driver Romain Grosjean who was crowned the 2012 Champion after an emphatic performance. Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher both failed to halt Romain’s march through the heats, as he progressed through to the final to triumph against eight-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen.
ROC Asia Cup
For the first time ever, the world’s most interesting weekend of racing featured the inaugural ROC Asia competition. The competing countries were India, China, Japan, and the host nation Thailand. This was the first time the ROC held an Asian championship, and the winners of the ROC Asia would go on to compete in the ROC Nations Cup – where they would compete against the world’s best drivers, representing the strongest motoring nations.
Making their first ever ROC appearance was Team India’s Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok. Both drivers have competed in F1, and this time they were up against the best drivers from China, Japan and Thailand. In the group stages, the Indian drivers performed extremely well and topped the group with four wins, out of six, to go into the final as favourites.
In the final, Team India faced off against Toyota Team Gazoo Japan, who were represented by Kazuya Ohshima and Takuto Iguchi – both class winners in this year’s Nürburgring 24-Hour race. However, the Indian drivers did not disappoint, and in the end they prevailed as victors. Both Narain and Karun won their heats to take the title.
This meant that Team India would compete against the other top teams in the ROC Nations Cup. The drivers fought hard, but they were unable to go past the group stages. Nonetheless, this was a great debut for India in the Race of Champions, and hopefully a sign of things to come.
Need For Speed: Colombo Nights
That’s exactly what it seemed like – like you were a part of the video game. The entire city of Colombo was shut down, so that the city streets could be turned into an exciting street circuit – it was beautiful!
The officials of the Colombo Night Races did a tremendous job in putting together one of the most exciting racing events in the Indian sub-continent, and it was really inspiring to experience it. From the moment we landed in Colombo, we knew it would be a special weekend. There were signs and posters promoting the event in the airport, giant billboards on the road to the hotel, and everyone we met asked us if we were visiting for the races.
Thanks to Volkswagen Motorsport, we were to witness a revolution in motorsport in the region. The Colombo Night Races, also known as CNR, were one of the most enjoyable racing events I’ve ever seen – mainly because the passion for the sport was immensely visible amongst the citizens of the country. Sri Lanka may not be a part of the F1 circus, and it may not have a track that’s FIA approved, but the CNR more than makes up for that – it is pure motorsports at the grassroots level, and damn is it awesome! The entire downtown district is shut down, and a fantastic 4.2 kilometer track is drawn out that runs right through the Presidents house.
Now in its second year, the CNR hosts a variety of races including three classes of motorcycles, the VW Polo R Cup, Toyota Etios Motor Racing, a few domestic races, a tuk-tuk race, and even a GT3 class race, which saw some beautiful cars such as the Lotus Elise, Aston Martin Vanquish and Lamborghini Gallardo compete against each other on the streets of Colombo. I highly recommend checking out next year’s edition of the CNR.
The first day was practice, while the second day was qualifying and the race. In the VW Polo R Cup, there was a mix of drivers from India and Sri Lanka, as well as the President’s son who is himself a huge motorsport fan and racer. In qualifying, it was Mumbai driver Munjal Savla who had the best lap time of 2:05.71. Qualifying was restricted to 3 timed laps owing to time restrictions, forcing the drivers to adapt quickly and put in hot laps right from the start with no room for error. JK Tyre National Karting Champion Ameya Bafna was almost a second slower than Munjal, but joined him on the front row of the grid. A. Sandeep Kumar and Angad Singh Matharoo were in 3rd and 4th positions respectively.
In the race, Munjal capitalized on his pole position and took the lead. He pushed his Race Polo to the maximum – never having to look back. He led throughout the race to take an easy victory. Sandeep, starting from 3rd position on the grid, had a great start and made an early move in lap one to move up a position ahead of Ameya. A battle ensued, but Sandeep managed to pull away from the young karting champion to finish second, while Ameya had to settle for third. There was also a bit of a scare as Angad Singh Matharoo had an accident that saw his Polo R Cup car tip onto its side – thankfully, he escaped unhurt.
It was a very exciting race, and a fantastic racing weekend. In fact, if you plan to visit Colombo, make sure you time it around the CNR 2013 – it promises to be bigger and better next year.
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