[ajmat]

In order to identify and nurture car racing champions, Narain Karthikeyan, Formula 1 racer, and Amara Raja Batteries have jointly started an academy -- Amaron-NK Racing Academy .................................


http://www.business-standard.com/com...eft=1&leftnm=1


MMSC folks - know anything about this ?

[mclaren1885]

Read about this in todays newspapers .. Hope this programmed grooms some good talent and is cost effective to most too .. Last thing we need is to have another academy accessible only to the rich and influentual ..

[iraghava]

Agree completely with you Mclaren but one more point I would like add is that it should be of World Class Standards and should try & produce drivers for DTM, WTCC, F1 etc. They shouldn't aim only at the Indian FISSME's or Formula Asia.

[mail4ajo]

Originally Posted by iraghava

Agree completely with you Mclaren but one more point I would like add is that it should be of World Class Standards and should try & produce drivers for DTM, WTCC, F1 etc. They shouldn't aim only at the Indian FISSME's or Formula Asia.

Our drivers should be able to excel Indian FISSME's or Formula Asia standards. Unless they do that, how can we ever think of DTM, WTCC, F1??

Our government should provide more support for these activities. In india, everyone's after cricket. No money for Motorsports . I know of several people including myself (although wasnt that keen) who just washed away dreams of a motorsports career. It just doesnt pay...

[Rtech]

Last thing we need is to have another academy accessible only to the rich and influentual ..

The problem is, motorsports IS expensive. And the higher up the ladder you go, the more expensive it gets. While there will be stray cases of a talented driver making to the top solely on talent alone, this is more the exception that the rule in today's sport.

So unless one has serious financial backing (be it sponsors or parents!), the sooner they accept the reality, the better it is. They can then concentrate on just enjoying it as a hobby by taking part in small races and track days and have a great time doing it.

The worst thing to do would be to artificially subsidise the initial stages of a childs racing, giving him false hope which lets him think its OK to drop out of college to pursue the sport, and then a couple of years later he finds out he has no money left, his sponsors have dried up and he has no back-up plan to fall on.

[mail4ajo]

Our Indian motorsports arena is primarily promoted by wealthy parents. With due respects to all, the Chandoks, Kinis, Madans, Karthikeyans, Ibrahims are all who run the show.

JK tyre, MRF etc have done a lot to promote young blood. We still need more sponsors to come forward and hold hands of the budding racers. Another way is to promote Karting. This will lead way to more serious racing.

I met a Amaron Battery marketing person at the JK race in chennai. He told me about Amaron's initiatives. Same goes for Valvoline. Good luck to these companies.

[mclaren1885]

RT , i do agree upon that MOTORSPORTS IS INDEED EXPENSIVE ..

So how does one expect to groom new talent ?? By allowing only those who are rich and influentual to get a chance to prove their metal at such camps and track days ?? Somewhere out there im sure there is a better player than sachin tendulkar or a sunil gavaskar lying out there (using this just as a reference) , but unless given a chance to showcase his talents how could he get that initial breakthrough (moresoever if he is from a very small town or cant afford training or play for the district , state etc where selectors can notice him) ?? Likewise , i think atleast at the initial steps in our national motorsports should be made cost effective just to groom new talent , give an oppurtunity to those who cant afford like we can .. For all u know we could have a guy sitting with his hands tied up in a village with talent to surpass NK ..

How do we cater to such needs ?? If the entry level of motorsports comes at a good price , more and more will get an oppurtunity to test and prove their skill .. Once the skill part is proven , sponsers will AUTOMATICALLY come (so there goes the problems of future sponsers for better events etc).. If one is destined to go up the ladder he will go , but its that 1st step that one needs help with .. However the case here being that only a select few get the oppurtunity and with their forefathers being highly influentual get the unanimous backing in the sport .. Now only if we could get more to see the light we could see (pray) better drivers than NK , AI , KC , JDM's and the likes getting into the pinacles of motorsports .. Right now where it stands is only those with moolah and sufficient talent (certainly needn't have to be the best) represent the country ..

PS : Like in any game , motorsports too is marred by politics .. But thats a story for a different thread .. Sad to know that this is how things still work in our country ..

[mail4ajo]

Originally Posted by Rgu88

Nk had spend lot of$ study in abroad .in his interview he said that in india there should be a school so our bouy get a good traning . so he is workin on it

Narain had the money to go to Silverstone racing school. How many of our boys has that kind of money?

I have come to a conclusion that serious Motorsport is only for the rich.. For others, we always have the gokarts and Fissmi and like.

[mail4ajo]

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

RT ,

PS : Like in any game , motorsports too is marred by politics .. But thats a story for a different thread .. Sad to know that this is how things still work in our country ..

This is just what I had in mind. Worst is on the politics. I have a friend who was a scapegoat of this politics in Motorsports

Note from Mod - please do not quote whole post unnecessarily, we really need all the kilobytes that we get - have shortened quote

[Mpower]

Well if you want sponsors then you need to show up at the track and watch the races.

Sponsors dont like to put their names on the cars with nobody watching from the empty stands.

[2L8uLoose]

Ok here goes my 2 cent's worth.
First off.. like Rt says.. its expensive to race anywhere in the world. Having enough talent today in motorsports means nothing if you dont have the moolah to back you up.
You cant get the moolah unless you prove you're talented.. so its a bit of a catch 22 situation.

Mclaren:-Once the skill part is proven , sponsers will AUTOMATICALLY come

I don't agree with you in the least bit here. In Rallying in India... we have TREMENDOUSLY talented newcomers who have proven their skill in rallying and still they have no SPONSORS(correct spelling).. so sadly thats the reality of things in Motorsports.

Mpower:Well if you want sponsors then you need to show up at the track and watch the races

I TOTALLY AGREE with Mpower there.. there are a lot of people that just go jabber jabber jabber about racing/rallying/karting but never EVER show up in person to support the events.
Cheers.

[Rtech]

Mclaren, in essence you have asked why life is not fair! There is no answer to that.

If its affordable racing you want, India has the absolute cheapest racing anywhere in the world.
- You can rent a rally car and take part in a rally for Rs.60,000 (US$ 1,300)
- You can rent a FISSME and take part in a race for Rs.15,000 (US$ 330)
- You can take part in the Indian National Karting Championship for Rs.1000 (US$21).

When I told this to a promoter from another country, he could not believe his ears! Nowhere in the world does a driver get to race at these rates.

You simply cannot get it cheaper. The problem is that the average salary of an Indian is so low, that its always going to be a major problem to come up with the money.

We have enough experts here telling everyone whats wrong with Indian motorsport. We now need people who will do something about it.

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Well if you want sponsors then you need to show up at the track and watch the races.
Sponsors dont like to put their names on the cars with nobody watching from the empty stands.

I completely agree to this .. Well said mpower ..

Originally Posted by 2l8uloose

so its a bit of a catch 22 situation.

It is indeed .. Just like which came into existance first "the egg or the hen??" ..

I don't agree with you in the least bit here. In Rallying in India... we have TREMENDOUSLY talented newcomers who have proven their skill in rallying and still they have no SPONSORS(correct spelling).. so sadly thats the reality of things in Motorsports.

I knew this was coming .. Yes , it is indeed sad .. But for things to improve , the sport has to be popularized to a great extent .. Create an awareness among people etc etc .. Slowly but surely we are getting there .. The market needs to mature wrt to motorsports ..

Originally Posted by rtech

The problem is that the average salary of an Indian is so low, that its always going to be a major problem to come up with the money.

Yes , i certainly do agree with u on this .. It could be very well true that we might be having the best of rates while compared to the rest of the world ... But dont u think the prices should be based on the economic status of our country than comparing it with the rest of the world (which are way ahead of us in terms of economic advancement and techonology) ?? Its high time our government takes a serious stand on motorsports or some good companies look at this as a future and invest ..

What we need is more tracks which are accessible to a lot more people, but that would mean escalating costs .. Sigh ...

We have enough experts here telling everyone whats wrong with Indian motorsport. We now need people who will do something about it.

Absolutely right on this one too .. But its the authorities that ought to come up with the first initiative .. Just the way the rules for the drags were changed to incorporate the Pro-Stock and the FI classes .. It was a welcome change for the betterment of motorsports , and widely appreciated by the racing enthusiasts (lets not take into account the money minded ones here) .. Wish such changes do come about in other forms of racing too ..

All sad and done , its been widely accepted that motorsports in india is purely based on politics and none can deny that fact .. All we can do is sit and pray things get better with time ..

[Shan2nu]

This reminds me of that programme on "Travel and Living" where Tiff Needell, Vicky Henderson and a few others put wanna be drivers through a series of tests and races to find one lucky soul who'l prob get to race in an F1 car at Monza.

Anyone got any info on that programme?

Shan2nu

[mac-a-tac]

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

This reminds me of that programme on "Travel and Living" where Tiff Needell, Vicky Henderson and a few others put wanna be drivers through a series of tests and races to find one lucky soul who'l prob get to race in an F1 car at Monza.

Anyone got any info on that programme?

Shan2nu

Hi Shantanu,

I work with O&M, the advertising agency for Amaron. And I wanted to tell you a bit on the Academy since we work closely wiht them on this and other innitiatives. Named Amaron-NK Racing Academy, it aims to identify, nurture and promote young talent and groom future fast track. racing drivers for India,A part of the Amaron Pro Racing initiative, this academy will leverage existing racing infrastructure in the country. As one of the first few initiatives of the academy, racing workshops will be conducted at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. The Amaron-NK Racing Academy is going to be more for the grassroot level. They are going to identify young talents, mainly below the age of 21-years-old and train them in all areas like engineering, driving and fitness etc. So, it gives them the right platform to start off. The other part to it (academy) is that four young drives are going to be shot listed from the team and they will be competing in the JK Tyres National Championship wherein they will be competing in formula roll-on championship. Will keep you posted on future developments.

Cheers