Seven Indians in the fray for JK racing series

A record seven Indian drivers will feature in the penultimate round of the JK Racing Asia Series.

BANGALORE: A record seven Indian drivers will feature in the penultimate round of the JK Racing Asia Series (JK­R­AS) to be staged as a su­pport race to the inaugural Indian Formula One Grand Prix this weekend, ushering in a new era in Indian motorsports.

“We acquired the rights of the previously known Form­ula BMW Pacific series with a clear motive of taking Indi­an motorsports to the next le­vel, and in keeping with our vision of making motorsports affordable and accessible to Indian drivers.  

The presence of seven Indi­an drivers in the JK Racing Asia Series this weekend is  te­stimony to the immense su­ccess of our pioneering efforts in putting together a development programme for Indian motorsports,” said Raghupa­ti Singhania, Managing Director, JK Tyre and Industries Limited at a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Alongside Raj Bharath, Ro­und 5 will have six additional Indian drivers namely Sarosh Hataria, Raahil Noorani, Sha­s­­hank Ravi Shankar, Vishnu Prasad, A Sandeep Kumar and Mohit Ahuja on the gr­id. These racers have been given the opportunity based on th­eir performances in the JK Ty­re National Racing Champ­i­onship, and their participat­ion in the JKRAS has been co-sponsored by JK Tyre and they will be driving with the Indian team Meco Motorsp­orts. The competition compri­ses 18 races over six rounds. So far two rounds have been sta­ged in Malaysia and one each in Indonesia and Singapore.

The championship is poi­s­ed for a tight finish with six ra­ces remaining over two ro­unds.

The series so far has wi­tnessed stiff competition between the top three conten­ders – Lucar Auer, Afiq Ikhw­an Yazid and Nabil Jeffri.

Ma­laysian Afiq Ikhwan Yazid won both the races in the previous round staged alongside the Singapore GP to close in within nine points of championship leader, rookie Au­st­r­­­ian Lucas Auer (193 po­in­ts).

Afiq stands at 184 points while Malaysian Nabil Jeffri is in third place with 122 poi­nts. David Sonenscher, CEO Motorsport Asia Ltd said, “We are happy to finally be he­­re at our sponsor’s home so­il and we are proud with wh­­at we have achieved so far this season alongside JK Tyre & Industries. We expect this ra­ce to be a historic event.”