Niranjan Todkar is Mercedes Benz India's Young Star Driver

Mercedes Benz is doing its bit to nurture racing talent in India and one such initiative is the Young Star Driver race that the German luxury car giant recently conducted at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC), Greater Noida. The Young Star Driver race saw 12 finalists battling for top honours at the BIC. These finalists were selected from a pool of 3,200 young racing aspirants from 48 cities across India.

The 12 finalists raced against each other at the BIC in AMG-spec Mercedes Benz sportscars, with Niranjan B Todkar, Diljith and Mezaan Anees bagging the top three places respectively. The race was a closely fought event, with Mr Todkar leading second placed Mr Diljith by just 0.012 seconds. The gap between second and third placed drivers was a more substantial 1.774 seconds, nevertheless close indeed.

The first three finishers will get varying levels of support from Mercedes Benz to further their racing goals. The winner of the Young Star Driver race, Mr Niranjan B Todkar, gains the opportunity of interning with the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team while also getting a chance to train at Mercedes Benz's AMG Academy-BIC, in the beginner and advanced courses. The winner will also undergo PRO-training at Germany, thus preparing himself to enter the world of professional racing.

The second placed driver, Mr Diljith, gets professional race training at the AMG Academy-BIC  in the beginner and advanced courses. The third finisher, Mr Mezaan Anees, gets to participate in the beginner's course at the AMG Academy-BIC. In a nutshell, the Young Star Driver program of Mercedes Benz aims at grooming racing talent in India, and giving them a platform to hone their skills and become professional race car drivers. 

Notably, other car makers involved in promoting motorsports among the younger generation in India are Volkswagen and Toyota. Toyota runs the Etios Motor Racing Trophy, a one make racing series involving young drivers while Volkswagen runs a similar program called the Polo and Vento Cups. In the two wheeler space, TVS Motors is a long-time participant of the MRF motorcycle racing series, Yamaha runs an R15 One-Make championship, Honda runs the CB Stunner one-make championship while KTM conducts regular Orange Days for Duke motorcycle owners.