India’s top international car racers, Armaan Ebrahim and Aditya Patel, currently racing internationally representing Audi and Lamborghini India, together bring a custom-made two-seater sports car racing league for the first time to India in the first quarter of next year and are backed by the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI).
The league aims to discover India’s next racing superstar by providing equal opportunities to rookies and national champions through a platform where they compete with the best in the world. The league will include eight city-based franchise teams, each comprising of two cars and four drivers and will feature a mix of race tracks and street circuits, on the lines of the Monaco GP in Formula 1. In a strong move towards the inclusion of women in motorsports in India and pushing the theme of gender neutrality in sports, female drivers will race along with male drivers in this first-of-its-kind format.
Armaan Ebrahim says, ‘Team owners in X1 are guaranteed high-visibility and potentially high-ROI due to the sound commercial model of ownership of the teams, and also revenue distribution of the league. At Rs 6.5-7Cr per year all-inclusive, ownership is priced super competitively as all aspects are managed centrally to optimize and streamline the costs.’
The league promises to give opportunities to young Indian drivers to rub shoulders with famous
International drivers and compete with them on an even platform. And with a solid media plan in place, the talented young drivers from India will find that this like the IPL will become an ideal platform for the world to recognize their talents.
Another import aspect is the promotion of women in Motorsport. Each team will have one woman driver of International experience, who will be paired with an Indian International driver. The performances of these drivers will surely give a huge boost to the interest levels of our Indian women drivers who can start to aspire to get selected in the future to represent one of the teams.
And finally, the most exciting aspect of the league is that it proposes to run 2 of the 4 rounds in 2019 on street circuits. This will be a big breakthrough, as a street circuit takes the sport to the masses and thus automatically helps build the interest and following in the sport.’
The racing series will follow the weekend format like other circuit championships with races taking place on Saturday and Sunday, with three races being held per day. Each race will be of 45 minutes in duration. The series has identified track venues including the Buddh International Circuit in Noida and the MMRT in Chennai to be a part of the calendar, while the races will also be held in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Mumbai. The X1 Racing League is awaiting approval from the international federation for the street circuit layout, in order to comply with the safety procedures and regulations. Two of the four rounds of the series will be on street circuits.
It also aims to bring racing to the people through city races and promote responsible driving and road safety while breaking the myths and prejudices around motorsport. The X1 Racing League will be announcing details on team ownership soon.
The new racing series certainly is a big push for the Indian motorsport scenario and a thoughtful step towards helping make motorsport popular and more accessible within the country.
