NEW DELHI: A bright new experiment in Indian motorsport commenced when the inaugural season of X1 Racing League was flagged off as part of the JK Festival of Speed at the Buddh International Circuit on Saturday. And going by the buzz it managed to generate, the league has hit the track running. The league, brainchild of racers Armaan Ebrahim and Aditya Patel, is the first-ever attempt in the country to have an IPL-style franchise-based series for motorsports. Six city-based teams are participating — each one with two international racers.
The big names that Aditya and Armaan have managed to rope in include former F1 racers Alex Yoong, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan. Bangalore Racing Stars began the competition on a dominant note, winning the day’s two races. It was the pair of F2 star Arjun Maini and British driver Oliver Webb, sharing the first Bangalore car, who took their team atop the standings with victories in both races of the day.
They were ably backed up by the second Bangalore car, driven by Nayan Chatterjee and Michelle Gatting, who finished fourth and third in their two races. Mumbai Falcons too had an impressive outing with the duo of Karthik Tharani and Mikkel Jensen finishing third in the first race and Kush Maini and Pippa Mann taking second place in race two. The next two races of the series will be held at the BIC on Sunday with the series then moving to Chennai for the upcoming weekend. In JK Tyre’s LGB4 category, Chennai’s Vishnu Prasad and Raghul Rangasamy were tied on 73 points after Saturday’s two races. The series is set for an exciting finale with one race remaining. Whoever betters the other on Sunday will take the title.