Stage set for JK Karting series

The 12th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Karting Championship kick starts in the city this weekend at the brand new Chicane circuit in Leonia with over 45 aspirants in the fray. Spread over five rounds, the 2015 season will be hosted across karting tracks in Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Bangalore.

This year, the championship has seen the maximum participation from Maharashtra. There are nine young racers from Mumbai, three from Kolhapur and four from Pune with two teams -- Rayo Racing from Mumbai and Mohite's Racing from Kolhapur -- participating.

The championship in its 12th successive year is the only national karting championship in the country. It has been nurtured by talented racers like Armaan Ebrahim, Jehan Daruvala, Arjun Maini, Kush Maini and Shahan Ali Mohsin who have been racing in various international series.

The brand new Chicane circuit is city's latest karting track which is 1.2 km in length with 12 corners. The karts this year will run on the new Evo Max engines which will elevate the kart's performance, which will in turn upgrade the driver's performance. Over 45 aspirants from across the country will be participating in the championship which will be held from June to October.

Leading professional karting teams namely Rayo Racing (Mumbai), Meco Racing (Chennai), Mohites Racing (Kolhapur), BPC Racing (Bangalore) and Dark Don Racing (Chennai) will be lining up their drivers on the grid. In addition to the five teams, there will be two new teams entering the championship this year, namely Erda Racing from Baroda and Team India Karting from Bangalore.

The drivers representing the seven teams will be divided into three categories on the basis of their age - Micro Max (7-12 years), Junior Max (13-15) and Senior Max (15 and above). The driver line-up this year has the likes of defending champions like Vishnu Prasad from Chennai, Ameya Bafna from Mumbai, Chittesh Mandody and Dhruv Mohite from Kolhapur in the Senior category.

Akash Gowda, Aaroh Ravindra from Mumbai, Nirmal Shankar from Chennai, Manav Sharma from Faridabad and Mira Erda from Baroda, who is one of the two girls taking part in this championship, are some of the karters to watch for in the Junior Max category.

In the Micro Max category, the drivers to look out for are Shahan Mohsin from Agra, Chirag Ghorpade and Ruhan Alwa from Bangalore. The overall champions in the Junior and Senior Max categories will represent India in the World Karting Finals 2015 which is scheduled in Portugal in November.

The overall champions, the first and second runners-up in the Junior Max and Senior Max categories get a fully sponsored drive in the JK Racing India Series in the JK Tyre Racing Championship 2016.