Young champs honoured

Bangalore boys impressive in National Karting series

The top three placers in the JK Tyre Rotax Max National karting championship, which concluded recently, were felicitated at Hard Rock Cafe.

“These kids have done fantastically well to be here and they deserve every bit of praise they are getting,” Akbar Ebrahim, president of MECO Motorsports, said.

“And the fact that almost half of the the top finishers in the karting championship are from Bangalore is a great testament to the City and its motor sports culture.

“What we want to do is take motor sport to every nook and corner of the country and make it as visible and viable for everyone as possible,” he added.

Among those feted were Bangalore boys Raj Bharath, who took the Junior Max championship, Arjun Maini, runner-up in the same class, Arjun’s brother Kush who finished third in the Micro Max class and Nikhil Kashyap, who finished third in the Senior Max class.

Raj and Parth Ghorpade, winner of the Senior Max class, have qualified for the Rotax World Karting Finals to be held in Italy next month.

“I’m extremely happy to have this opportunity. I know the competition in Italy will be big but I hope to do really well,” Raj said. “I don’t want to go there just to make up the numbers, but I want to be right among the top and hopefully I will be there up at the podium come the end of the race.” Sanjay Sharma, JK Tyre head of motor sports, felt that India is thriving as a country for motorsports. “We have consistently developed driver that have excelled internationally, with Narain Karthikeyan and Armaan Ebrahim being the obvious ones.  Seeing these kids drive I’m sure that in the future our country is going to have plenty more international calibre drivers.”