Mikko Hirvonen has begun the 2011 season on a high by clinching the opening round of the 2011 season for his Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team. This was Hirvonen’s second consecutive victory in Sweden and 13th win of his carrier making him Ford’s most successful driver in the championship till date.

Finishing 6.5 seconds ahead of Norwegian, Mads Ostberg, Mikko grabbed first place on the second day of the competition which witnessed a five-way battle on the final day to make an exciting finish for the Ford Fiesta RS driver. One place down, teammate Jari-Matti Latvala came in third to complete the podium and along with it a dream result for the Ford Rally Team. The debut of Citroen DS3 was supposed to be the high point of the season opener but unfortunately last year’s winner Sebastien Loeb could not make an impact as the Citroen driver finished sixth overall. However his team-mate, Sebsastien Ogier did a bit better finishing fourth.

Earlier during the day, Ogier had slipped to fifth place due to a nudge with a snow bank but a solid comeback on WRC’s inaugural Power Stage saw him reclaim fourth position from Peter Solberg. Solberg was forced to submit his license for speeding on public roads. This forced his co-driver, Chris Patterson, take to the wheel which resulted in an uninspired performance owing to the lack of experience in Citroen’s latest rally car.

Swedish driver PG Anderson won the opening super special stage, but his luck ran out as the Ford driver had to settle for seventh place due to time lost involving a roll, then a puncture and a power steering fault which put him out of contention. Former F1 star, Kimi Raikkonen, managed a humble eighth in his ICE 1 Racing Citroen followed by Matthew Wilson and Khalid Al Qassimi in 9th and 10th places respectively. FERM World Rally Team’s, Dennis Kuipers, managed to grab one point for his team in the manufacturers standing as he crossed the finish line in 13th place ahead of American stuntman Ken Block.

JK Tyre launches JK Racing Asia Series

JK Tyre have had a long association with motor sports in India. Their motor sporting heritage began with the historical Himalayan Car Rally which was followed by go-karting, circuit racing and now they’ve gone that extra length and announced the introduction of JK Racing Asia Series.

The Indian tyre manufacturer is going be the main sponsor while the management would be in the hands of Motorsport Asia – who are one of the biggest promoters of motorsports in Asia. The championship will have drivers participating from all over the world including the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and Africa. Named as Formula JK Tyre Pacific, the cars would run on racing spec tyres from JK.

The series will comprise of 18 races which will be run on six weekends for the 2011 season. Scheduled to begin in April this year, some of the venues include countries like Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia, China, Singapore and India. The interesting fact is that on three occasions Formula JK Tyre Pacific will run as support race for the grand daddy of circuit racing – Formula One. The Grand Prix of Malaysia, Singapore and India are the three venues announced. The remaining three weekends would be a part of the Asian Festival of Speed (AFoS) which will be held in Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia. The cars are made of carbon-fibre composites and Kevlar making them light, and extremely strong. The engine is a 1.2 litre BMW motor that will produce 140 bhp and help the cars achieve a top speed of 230 km/h.

L to R: Sanjay Sharma, Vicky Chandhok, Raghupati Singhania, David Sonenscher & Arun Bajoria

With Polo Cup gaining huge success last year, things are only going to get better for the motorsports fraternity with JK Tyre’s involvement. Nurturing young talent and representing it in the international motor sport arena hints at India’s immense potential not only in relation to its economy but in sports too.

Amaron Karting Challenge

Text: Ashish Jha | Images: K. Jairaj Chaudhri



Motor racing in India has never been – and, let’s face it, will likely never be – as popular as cricket. And thanks to politicians with hidden agendas and ulterior motives, Formula 1 has been deposed from its mantle as the pinnacle of motorsport, and has been branded as merely being ‘a form of expensive entertainment.’

Sorry Mr. Minister, but hundreds of millions of Formula 1 fans from across the globe strongly disagree with you. F1 is one of the toughest ‘sports’ in the world. The physical and mental preparation required to be a professional racing driver – or, should I say athlete – is second to none. In fact, the fitness levels of F1 racers rivals that of even fighter pilots and astronauts. Then there are engineers, strategists, mechanics, training specialists, marshals, and many more who work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure a Grand Prix’s success. Plus, motor racing is not only a great revenue generator, but also provides employment to thousands.

But, while F1 is the epitome of motorsport, it’s really go-karting that’s nurtured motor racing greats like Prost, Senna, and Schumacher. With India now on the F1 calendar, interest in motorsport is on the rise like never before. And to ensure that we get more Karthikeyans and Chandhoks entering the top level of motorsport, Amaron’s go-karting championship series is cultivating speed junkies and honing them to embrace the difficulties and brilliance of higher levels of racing.

But these are spiels that you’ve been hearing for years. So, one has to experience it first hand to realize the hard work the unit puts in. And that’s just what we witnessed at the Delhi round of the 3rd season of the Amaron Karting Challenge. A few obsessed guys – Akbar, Mack (Amaron’s Motorsport Head), and the entire Amaron team – make sure a lot of kids get to experience the sport of karting for the first time.

We – Dhruv and I – registered ourselves in the Corporate Challenge and were up against names that Dhruv would remember clearly. He raced against some of them in the Polo Cup while going on to claim 3rd position in the second race of Round 5. The corporate challenge was an endurance race, of sorts, and I qualified us on third spot. But we had to start from the absolute back of the grid as we checked in late. Still, we got in the groove, and despite a couple of spins and overshooting corners by me, we made up a number of spots and challenged the likes of Sailesh Bolisetti and Karthik Shankar. But then we got penalised by over one minute for signing in late – again – on the driver switch sheet after the race. Nevertheless, we still managed to put in a strong performance and came third.

But this is not about our achievements. Amaron’s Karting Challenge is about small racy kids and teenagers. It’s all about cultivating young talent and passionate dreams of school kids who idolise the Alonsos and Kubicas of the world. It’s high time India started getting some real raw motor racing talent by inspiring the youth in our country. And Amaron is concentrated on doing just that – by identifying and fostering them.

The Delhi round of the Amaron Karting Challenge saw some real gripping action, and the top three guys were constantly trying to outdo each other. But it was Vidit Jain of Shriram School who took the chequered flag, ahead of Kevin Lazarus of DPS, and Garv Anand of Birla Vidya Niketan.

The final round of Amaron’s Karting Challenge was hosted at the spectacular Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, where the fastest 54 racers, between 12-16 years of age, selected from over 300 schools from 9 cities, competed for the top honours. Akash Gouda, Akhil Rabindra, and Prakhyat Rai, all from Bengaluru crossed the finish line in first, second and the third positions respectively.

MRF FORMULA 1600



Round 2 of the MRF Formula Championship 2011 saw some explosive action as Jukka Honkavuori from Finland won the final race. While in race 1, it was Jordon King from Great Britain who grabbed the win followed by Ashwin Sundar who won race 2.

The final round following a reverse grid format experienced the most amount of action as Jukka Honkavuori, driving for Team Gulf Oil grabbed first place. It was a welcome win for the Finn considering that Ashwin and Kartik faltered due to an intense battle allowing the Team Gulf Driver to go through. Prior to the battle, on the opening lap it was Kartik who took the lead as Ashwin made his way up from 8th to 3rd position. His qualification of 8th place on the grid was due to a penalty imposed on the rookie for changing his engine. Meanwhile Jordan King who was one of the favorites to win, lost out due to an intense battle with Ashwin. Starting fourth on the first lap, the Brit attempted to get ahead by overtaking the Indian rookie from the outside on lap 3. This maneuver proved to be fatal as he lost control of his car and ended up in gravel resulting in a broken gear box, thus it was race over for him.

Race 2 however was a different story, as there was no real competition with Jordan King qualifying on pole followed by Jukka and Ashwin. The young Brit skillfully tackled the race as he led from the start to finish. Jukka took the chequered flag in second place and managed to increase his lead with Ashwin trailing him behind in third.

Prior to the final day, Race 1 saw Ashwin take the honors courtesy a false start by Jordan King. King who was on pole led the race from start to finish. At the end of the race, a penalty of 20 seconds put the Brit in second place awarding Sundar the winner’s trophy for all the hard work he had done during the race. Arjun Balu, who was on pole could not do much as he slipped down to 14th place before recovering to finish the race in 6th place overall. The one competitor who surprised everyone with his aggressive driving was Ameya Walawalkar. He managed to topple Jukka who was running third in the 7th lap to grab the last position on the podium.