[Tushar]

Round 1 of India's biggest domestic racing championship, the MMSC FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship will begin this weekend. Practice and qualifying runs will take place on Friday (23rd Jan,2015) with races starting on Saturday morning. The event will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Madras Motor Race Track. The weekend action will also witness the final round of the MRF Challenge 2014.

In the MRF Challenge, British driver Toby Sowery holds a 14 point lead over GP3 driver Ryan Cullen, with Indian driver Raj Bharath coming in 29 points off the leader. There will be 4 Indians on the grid with Raj being joined by Tarun Reddy, Lee Keshav and Mahavir Raghunathan. Both Sowery and Cullen have two wins each this year with Raj having one win to his name.

The high octane weekend will also include the Indian Touring Car Championship (ITC), the Indian Junior Touring Car Championship (IJTC) and the Superstock category races. In the ITC category, Arjun Narendran will be back to defend his title against Ashish Ramaswamy and B Vijaykumar. Last year's IJTC winner Dr. VJ Senthil will graduate to the ITC and will be taking his best shot at the title.

Highlights will also include the 600cc and 1,000cc class superbike races along with the MRF FF1600 championship. This year will see participation by former Indian Junior Touring Cars champion Feroze Khan, 2014 Volkswagen Polo Cup Champion Karthik Tharani Singh in the FF1600, along with defending Indian Touring Car Champion Arjun Narendran. South Indian cinema actor Jai will also be racing in the MRF FF1600 series.