[Mpower]

Well the end of the year 2006 is coming up and I thought its good time to discuss Indian drivers and riders who are flying the tricolour in International racing series.

Narian Karthikeyan probably had a boring year testing Williams cars in lonely racetracks. Hopefully they used the data to improve the team. Dunno what he is doing next year.

Arman Ebrahim raced in Formula Renault UK in the Graduate Cup. This series is not as competetive as the British F3 series where future F1 stars get noticed. Anyways, overall a disappointing performance he never really dominated anywhere and the field has only 5-6 cars...lets see what happens next year.

As if this wasnt enough, he's also doing A1Gp for Team India which is still running. Performance is little better than last year but still not in the top ten.

Karun Chandok probably had the best year, having said goodbye to European racing and back on the Asian scene which he used to dominate.
New series called Formula Renault Asia V6 championships is almost tailor made for him to dominate and win and he did in style taking the championship.

Among the young guns Aditya Akkineni raced formula BMW Asia this year with team E-rain but his performance is nowhere close to what Armann put up last year. Dunno where he finished but best of luck to him. Aditya Patel was another F-Asia hopeful but I dunno if he made it.

BIKES

These guys get nowhere close to the kind of PR or sponsorship compared to 4 wheelers but are putting up a fight in the Malaysian super series. Might as well because bike racing in India can get them no where and nothing.

Dilip Rogers in the 600 cc class dicing with the big boys. Finished 4th in the championship.

In the 150 cc class the field is rife with 5 Indian riders (supposedly). K Rajini did really well and finished 2nd in the championship, but Emmanual Jebaraj and Ashwin Sunder were not too far. Not sure who else is in it..please fill in if you have info.

[v1p3r]

Akkineni is planning to leave motorsports, to get a degree in the US.

[nitrous]

Dilip Rogers in the 600 cc class dicing with the big boys. Finished 4th in the championship.

I call him "The Narain Karthikeyan of bikes".Proudly,he's from chennai.
The dude seriously lacks sponsorship.We've tried everywhere. :(
Any generous donor on the forum??

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by nitrous

I call him "The Narain Karthikeyan of bikes".Proudly,he's from chennai

All Indian bike racers are from Chennai..seems like there is no interest in the sport anywhere else.

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Narian Karthikeyan probably had a boring year testing Williams cars in lonely racetracks. Hopefully they used the data to improve the team. Dunno what he is doing next year.

If I remember correctly he's confirmed at Williams for 2007 too in the same role.

Originally Posted by Mpower

All Indian bike racers are from Chennai..seems like there is no interest in the sport anywhere else.

Also remember there are no facilities anywhere else either. So you have boy-racers on their tarted up Pulsar's & Karizma's ala Dhoom and making a nuisance on the roads. Quite a danger to themselves & others too.

[Mpower]

I think NK should say goodbye to F1 and enter A1GP as Team India's driver. Its important that he win some races rather than drive around testing F1 cars paid for by uncle Ratan....with no realistic chances of becoming an F1 driver.

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by Mpower

I think NK should say goodbye to F1 and enter A1GP as Team India's driver. Its important that he win some races rather than drive around testing F1 cars paid for by uncle Ratan....with no realistic chances of becoming an F1 driver.

I agree but I think for him it's become an Ego issue now since he's an "F1" driver. He hyped his path to F1 so much as if he was expecting to be a title contender once he got there but as we all know F1 is a different ball game altogether. Now, to move a series like A1GP which is ranked lower than F1 would be an insult so he sticks to F1 even if it's only as a test driver. But it's a matter of time before someone makes a better offer for sponsorship & NK gets kicked out of there.

Maybe then he'll see sense & move onto A1GP to bring some decency to the Indian team. It's high time someone moved India out of its disgraceful position in the A1GP rankings.