[Vid6639]

As per today's Times of India, Red Rooster will no longer be part of any motorsports in India. They have left go karting as well as INRC to concentrate on building performance cars for their clients.

Reason given was due to lack of sponsors for future funding. They spend Rs.18 crores in the last 3 years for various motor sports they were involved in but are not able to get sponsors for future.

Sad since all the sponsors are lining up for cricket but Motorsports has no interest with the big companies.

They were winners of 2008 and 2010 INRC group N category.

[amrisharm]

This is sad indeed. I mean Red Rooster Racing was always among the front runners in any category they raced and yet they had a hard time finding sponsors. Cant imagine what it is like for the others.

With such little media coverage, how does the indian motorsport federation expect sponsors to be interested?

[Ricky_63]

Loss of motorsport for sure, will they now focus ONLY on building cars ? If yes, then that is a huge gain for the tuner scene in India..




Cheers

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by vid6639

Reason given was due to lack of sponsors for future funding. They spend Rs.18 crores in the last 3 years for various motor sports they were involved in but are not able to get sponsors for future.

This was exactly what Leela said. If you remember when we all went there together. In a way, I find it'll do good for them.

[pranavt]

They are still building cars for the Indian National Saloon Class championship and they are a direct competitor of the team I'm in for the Group N class. They'll still build cars that participate in motorsport but won't be fielding their own team I guess. Much better that way anyways.

[georgev]

big loss for the sport, hope some one enter as a savior for them. they had taken the sport to the next level with a great line up/ team

[GTO]

If a top, winning team like Red Rooster fails to attract sponsor $$$, what's to say about the smaller - midfield teams? I am shocked, and deeply saddened, to hear of this news. Hope Red Rooster comes back with their own team sometime in the future.

The FMSCI should take this matter up as a top priority, and at the macro level; increase interest (how many of us petrolheads even follow Indian motorsports???) & awareness, market the sport (no better role model than Bernie & F1 to learn from) and offer + differential value to sponsors. I can tell you, as a business owner, that I will ALWAYS consider return-on-investment before taking up any marketing initiatives. And clearly, the corporate world doesn't want to cut cheques for motorsport today. Remember, with the way that things are today, motorsports isn't competing with cricket for sponsorship; rather, it's with hockey & other tier II sports.

[2theMax]

Sad state of affairs.

If RR can't find sponsors, whom are they going to set up cars for and for how long ?

[ajman28]

I feel motorsport is am extremely niche segment in India. Except a handful, nobody follows motorsport. Even among this handful, majority will be following only F1. So it is only natural that other motorsports find it difficult to get sponsors. Actually this heat is felt by many other sports too. An example would be badminton where they have just made it compulsory for women to wear skirts while playing. This will supposedly increase the popularity!!

[nick17s]

RR displayed a modified/ tuned cedia at Auto Expo 2010, however, that was sponsored by Yokohama and the car itself was displayed at Yoko stall, Will check if they are participating this time with some sponsor...

[Passiontodrive]

In my view main culprit is "MEDIA"

They are busy in showing useless stuff...

"Commissioner ka kutta kho gaya"
"****** Cricket player ne mandir main pooja ki"
"Cinema"
"Bloody Politicians: with useless statements"

I love cricket but cricket is killing every other sport in India.

[pranavt]

Originally Posted by 2theMax

Sad state of affairs.

If RR can't find sponsors, whom are they going to set up cars for and for how long ?

There are many rich guys who are fielding their own teams. Remember, RRR was one of many who are still going strong, or atleast have no plans to quit. They still have contracts to build cars for the national saloon class races AFAIK, probably other categories of motorsport too. IMO, makes sense to have privateer teams with the big guys developing for a fee. Companies with shareholders and big corporate identities are fickle and won't stay for long if they aren't getting RoI.

[ramie2400]

Its SAD to hear this news,everytime i opened the new edition of overdrive,seeing RRR i used to feel proud there is someone in India who is doing well for the Automotive Performance and Racing area's.Hats off to these guys who made it successful since 2008.

Racing field is a slow development field with alot of RnD and less of output,sponsors who do up the sponsorship get their definite returns very fast in other sports.

Secondly alot hassle is there in Motosports Business in our Laws. So the main reason in-spite of alot of soo much of slog and development it turns out to be flop show.

[Jayabusa]

It's ironical. Sports like cricket which can be played by everyone, that too anywhere, have the highest viewership and have translated into mass entertainment, while those which have very few qualified professionals and which are to be viewed by millions, lack viewership(corresponding to lack of sponsors).

[pranavt]

Where's the irony? A sport which is more accessible has more viewers and more sponsorship, as opposed to a sport reserved mostly for elites and/or filthy rich rockstars. How can you expect a village kid to understand about engines and downforce when he has possibly never sat in a car?