INDIA in F1

Tag: X1 racing league

  • Mumbai Falcons soar high with a double; Bangalore Racing Stars top in Race 1

    Mumbai Falcons soar high with a double; Bangalore Racing Stars top in Race 1

    Mumbai Falcons pair of Kush Maini (right) and Mikkel Jensen who scored a double in the X1 Racing League on Sunday. 

    Chennai, 8 Dec 2019: Mumbai Falcons, represented by Kush Maini and Mikkel Jensen (Denmark), won two of the three races while Bangalore Racing Stars tandem of Arjun Maini and Oliver Webb (England) took the honours in the other outing as the curtains came down on the inaugural franchise-based XI Racing League at the MMRT, here today.

    The first race of the day, won by Bangalore, took a heavy toll with six cars packing up due to mechanical reasons. It left a six-car grid for the second and third races, but that did not take anything away from Mumbai’s double.

    The Race-1 was interrupted by a Safety Car period after one of the cars blew the engine. Bangalore started fourth on the grid behind Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, but with some smart tactics managed to pull ahead. The teams were required to make a mandatory driver change between ninth and 14th minutes window and Bangalore, powered by Arjun Maini and England’s Oliver Webb got it spot on and then held off a late charging Mumbai (Kush Maini and Mikkel Jensen) to win the race. Hyderabad (Vitantonio Liuzzi-Gosia Rdest) completed the podium.

    The second race began on reverse grid of the previous race standings. As such, Delhi’s Gaurav Gill, the three times Asia Pacific Rally champion, started from pole and led until he pitted for Raghul Rangasamy to take over. Rangasamy maintained the track position to finish second behind Mumbai Falcons (Kush Maini and Jensen). Bangalore Racing Stars who had started fifth, came in third.

    Mumbai Falcons went on to complete a double later in the evening, finishing on top in Race-3 ahead of Bangalore Racing Stars and Blackbirds Hyderabad.

    Kush Maini (No.1) on a charge in Race 2 on Sunday. Photos by Anand Philar

    The results (Provisional):

    Race-1: 1. Bengaluru Racing Stars (Arjun Maini / Oliver Webb) (27mins, 23.458secs); 2. Mumbai Falcons (Kush Maini / Michel Jensen) (27:24.018); 3. Blackbirds Hyderabad (Vitantonio Liuzzi / Gosia Rdest) (27:28.969).

    Race-2: 1. Mumbai Falcons (28:02.222); 2. AD Racing Delhi (Gaurav Gill / Raghul Rangasamy) (28:21.637); 3. Bangalore Racing Stars (28:25.847).

    Race-3: 1. Mumbai Falcons (27:59.175); 2. Bangalore Racing Stars (28:03.838); 3. Blackbirds Hyderabad (Luizzi / Akhil Rabindra) (28:28.382).

    About X1Racing League

    X1Racing League, promoted by Racing Promotions Private Limited, is a hybrid motorsport media business creating, developing and commercializing IPs via live events, experiences and ecosystem. X1Racing League intends to reimagine, reinvent and redefine motorsport. X1Racing League is built on three pillars namely X1Racing League, X1Racing eSports and X1Racing Speed Summits. The X1Racing League powered by JK Tyre takes place in November-December in Delhi and Chennai represented by six franchise teams of 24 race drivers including international and domestic men and women. The X1Racing eSports Season 1 is being held in collaboration with global technology leader OnePlus across each of these six cities prior to the professional league to involve fans in a participative simulator-racing format. Winners will win rewards as well as have an opportunity to be trained by professional race drivers. Additionally, in their attempt to make motorsport a part of a larger lifestyle, the X1Racing Speed Summits will bring about exclusive weekenders in the form of VIP corporate experiences. All these pillars bring together a robust calendar of motorsport activity across India touching fans and talent alike to truly make motorsport much more than a sport, but a lifestyle.

  • X1 league round 2 at MMRT on Dec 8

    Chennai, 12 Nov 2019: About 30 top drivers, representing a city each, will take part in the inaugural edition of the motorsports league to be held at Delhi and Chennai this year.

    The X1 Racing League will have about 30 drivers from across the world available for bidding by six franchises, before the league starts on November 30 and ends on December 1. The six franchises are from Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, and Delhi.

    The X1 Racing League, a franchise-based motorsports competition will have six teams representing a city each. Son of legendary F1 driver Niki Lauda, Mathias was picked by the Delhi franchise (AD Racing) while India’s Arjun Maini and Gaurav Gill will race for Bengaluru (Bangalore Racing Stars) and Delhi teams respectively. The league is powered by JK Tyre Motorsports.

    The league will be held between November 30-December 1 in New Delhi at the Buddh International Circuit and December 7-8 in Chennai at the Madras Motor Race Track. There will be four drivers and two cars in each team. Of the four drivers in each team there will be one international male, one international female, one India international and domestic racer. Of the two domestic racers picked in each team one will get to represent the franchise. Each race will last for 30 minutes and will have three unique team-based race formats per day.

    Team Hyderabad (Blackbirds Hyderabad) was the first to pick in the draft which started off with India’s International racers in the first round, they chose Akhil Rabindra. The next to pick was Team Bengaluru who chose Arjun Maini after which Team Mumbai (Mumbai Falcons) went on to choose Arjun’s brother Khush Maini. The others picked in the round were Krishna Mahadik by Team Ahmedabad (DG Racing), Gill by Team Delhi and Chennai team (NK Racing) auto-picked their team owner Narain Karthikeyan.

    In the male international racers draft, Bengaluru was the first pick and chose English racer Oliver James Webb. The other male international racers who were picked in the draft include Malaysian F1 driver Alex Yoong by Ahmedabad, Mathias joined Delhi franchise, China’s Frankie Cheng went to the Chennai team, former F1 racer Tonio Luizzi by Hyderabad and Danish racer Mikkel Jensen by Mumbai.

    As both male and female drivers would be racing against each other, it was important for each franchise to make sure they had a strong female driver as well. The first female international racer to be picked was Denmark’s Michelle Gatting by Bengaluru. While, English racers Pippa Mann and Alice Powell joined Mumbai and Chennai respectively, Switzerland’s Rahel Frey went to Ahemedabad, Denmark’s Christina Neilsen to Delhi and Polish racer Gosia Rdest to Hyderabad.

    The domestic racers who will be part of the action include Arjun Balu and Yash Aradhya for Chennai, Raghul Rangaswamy and Ashwin Datta for Delhi, Chittesh Mandody and Ameya Walavalkar for Ahmedabad, Sohil Shah and Karthik Tharanisingh for Mumbai, Nayan Chatterjee and Vishnu Prasad for Bengaluru and Arjun Narendran and Anindth Reddy for Hyderabad.

    “All teams are equally balanced and look strong. As all the cars are of the same make, it will be up to the drivers to show their skills and win the race for their team. We hope that the best team wins the league. We are happy with how the draft concluded and the owners are also happy with their teams. We can’t wait for racing to begin,” said co-founder of X1 Racing, Armaan Ebrahim.

    “Some of our domestic Indian drivers will get a chance to rub shoulders with the best of the best. This a chance for the domestic racers who were picked in the draft to make it to the next level and prove themselves against other established International driver. I hope they come out on top,” said co-founder of X1 Racing, Aditya Patel.

    The X1 Racing League follows the X1 Racing eSports Racing season 1, a digital-simulator based racing competition that is currently being held in cities across India. The eSports competition was created by X1 Racing in a bid to tap out talent from different strata of the society and also increase the fan following for motorsport in the country.

    Team Hyderabad: Akhil Rabindra, Tonio Luizzi, Gosia Rdest, Arjun Narendran, Anindth Reddy

    Team Bengaluru: Arjun Maini, Oliver James Webb, Michelle Gatting, Nayan Chatterjee, Vishnu Prasad

    Team Mumbai: Khush Maini, Mikkel Jensen, Pippa Mann, Sohil Shah, Karthik Tharanisingh

    Team Ahmedabad: Krishna Mahadik, Alex Yoong, Rahel Frey, Chittesh Mandody, Ameya Walavalkar

    Team Delhi: Gaurav Gill, Mathias Luada, Christina Neilsen, Raghul Rangaswamy, Ashwin Datta

    Team Chennai:  Narain Karthikeyan, Frankie Cheng, Alice Powell, Arjun Balu, Yash Aradhya