The Buddh International Circuit was put through its paces and there’s more to come
Due to reasons ranging from maintenance issues to postponements and cancellations, racing activity on India’s first ever Formula 1 grade circuit was limited to just F1 race weekends up till the 2012 edition.
In December of last year, however, previously overlooked national level racing series changed all that during the Sidvin Festival of Speed in which 14 races were held over just two days with over 100 participants in a variety of categories.
While the Buddh International Circuit remains active through corporate events and track days for pretty much throughout the year, it was heartening to see it throw open its high tech doors to the national racing fraternity and be used for what it was built for.
The BIC got more of the same on the September 14 to 15 weekend when eight car races in the National Racing Championship were complimented by eight races in four motorcycle categories of the two-wheel national championship to give the BIC its first motorcycle racing events in its short history.
By the time you read this, the JK Tyre Racing Championship would have held its third round at the circuit with its own line up of Volkswagen Polo R Cup, Formula BMW and Formula LGB4 cars.
It certainly makes a racing fan optimistic of seeing more races at the facility in 2014 when there won’t be an F1 race.
After all, around 6,000 people filled the lower tier of the start-finish grandstand (which has a capacity of 10,000) on Sunday alone to watch races that get limited attention. Sure it may be unrealistic to think that this will lead to the near 100,000 seats being filled on a national level event alone.
However, with both the races during the Festival of Speed and the NRC weekend getting prominent coverage in the sports pages – a long time coming for motorcycle racing – it may not be unrealistic to assume a desire to have even more events.
It’s a win-win situation for Jaypee Sports too, whose own staffers admitted to not being too concerned by the politics in Indian motor sport.
As much as their own enthusiasm was for the Festival of Speed, all the more was the satisfaction of hosting double the number of events with MRF and JK Tyre supported categories doing their own thing!
And if the racing during the NRC weekend was any indication, that can only be a good thing.
The four motorcycle racing categories: TVS Apache RTR 180, Yamaha YZF R15, Honda CBR 250R one make series and the Group C Experts class for 165cc bikes showed off the natural advantage that two-wheelers have over cars when it comes to serving up racing entertainment.
Their narrow bodies, zero down force and much longer braking zones create far more overtaking opportunities even at corners that car racers find to be too tight.
A thrilling example of the kind of multiple lead changes and ‘where did that guy come from?!’ type passes was seen in the first Honda CBR 250R race.
As K Rajini and former MotoGP participant Sarath Kumar followed each other into the 5.14 km circuit’s penultimate turn 15, A. Prabhu appeared from nowhere to dive down the inside of both to briefly take the lead.
Later in the same race, Kumar passed Rajini for the lead at turn 15 only to get his downshift wrong into the final turn 16 that saw Rajini pass him right back and win by 0.157 seconds.
Not to be outdone by their two-wheel counterparts, however, racers in the first MRF Formula Ford 1600 (FF1600) race served up a thrilling finish too.
Nineteen-year-old Vikash Anand diced with passed 15-year-old Tarun Reddy in the first FF1600 race for second before hounding Yuudai Jinkawa for the win. An aggressive defence by the Japanese saw Anand make a last gasp attempt at a pass on the final corner of the final lap while Reddy took a wide entry to try and get both. The top three finished within 0.376 seconds of each other before Reddy received a 15 second post race penalty for a false start.
Anand went one better in the second race by taking a dominant win by nearly eight seconds over Reddy, who in turn finished ahead of Kizuku Hirota and Yuudai Jinkawa.
The FF1600 title had already been wrapped up by Ashwin Sundar at the fourth round in Chennai, who was conspicuous by his absence in Greater Noida.
A championship was also wrapped up by N Leelakrishnan in the Indian Touring Car Championship (ITC) with Feroze Khan taking the Junior touring car crown.
Toyota’s inaugural Etios Motor Racing series also saw the crowning of a champion with Diljith taking the title ahead of Akhil Rabindra and Varun Anekar.
There’s certainly more to come if auto majors like Hyundai and Honda can be convinced to throw their hat into the motor sport ring and add to the list of tin-top racers.
Volkswagen and now Toyota have taken the leap and the extra publicity along with the benefit to those with heavy right feet hasn’t really hurt.
In the hands of Tiger Sports and Arjun Balu, VW has taken an even bigger chance on their Vento by competing against established runners in the ITC. Perhaps others too will see fit to do the same.
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