Hyderabad will be the racing chapel of India

It is a barest form of racing, testing the limit of the machine as well as the resolve and presence of mind of the driver. And any true motorsport enthusiast would have tried it at least once in his life, be it with friends during college or "unofficially" from one traffic signal to another.

While the concept of drag racing isn’t something new to India, the venue to perform that incredible feat always remained one. For years, the country has been restricted to drag races only on bikes at the Aamby Valley airstrip, which hosts The Valley Run, every year, but even here a drag strip has remained a distant dream.

Now to the news that might give wet dreams to petroheads, India is going to have the first ever drag strip and in all probability, that is going to come up in the city. Nagaraja Katellu, founder of Yash Motorsports, at a recent seminar, announced the building of a one kilometre, two-lane drag strip near Hyderabad.

Commenting on why Hyderabad was chosen for the track, Nagaraja stated, “I am from Hyderabad, but have spent most of my life in the US. I always had the desire to do something for the city, and racing is something I have been passionately involved in” adding that “We want to make Hyderabad the racing chapel of India.”

It was also revealed that the Government of Telangana too is keen about the venture and will extend their support wherever required. “We have held initial level of talks with Telangana government and many private parties. The response has been positive. We have zeroed in on Shamshabad as one of the locations for the track,” he added.

The length of the track will be 400m and another 600m for shutdown area. The drag strip will be built as per the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), a governing body of drag racing, regulations and safety standards.

NHRA executive, Mark Hughes was present at the event and stated, they will oversee the setup, training and will also help in making the calendar of events along with running the initial races.

With the seating capacity of 2,000, the drag strip will house a driving school. Racers will be able to participate in the races with their own bike and cars.

“Such a track has been necessitated as many young people who have fast cars or bikes are indulging in drag races on city streets which is illegal and fatal,” added Nagaraja.

As in every racing track, safety will be given utmost priority; it will have emergency teams, trauma center, fire safety team, tow truck and safety crew members at every 50 metres. In addition, there would be adequate timing system to ensure the accuracy of the drag run times for all participants,” stated.

Zayn Khan, the newly appointed president of Federation of Motorsports Clubs of India (FMSCI) was also present in the event and supported the initiative of building up the strip. The seminar was also attended by former FMSCI president Vicky Chandhok, who stressed on the development of the sport in the country.

This is not the first time that such high speeds and adrenaline rush is being associated with Hyderabad. In 2003, former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu of united Andhra Pradesh reserved 1,500 acres of land near the airport at Hyderabad to build a state-of-the-art F1 track.

Vicky Chandhok, had stated in an interview: "Andhra Pradesh is really pushing it like no other state! It is great to see a Chief Minister pushing so hard. ". In December 2003, a seven-year pre-agreement to host the GP in Hyderabad in 2007 was signed.

The track was to be built near Gopanapally village, near the outskirts of Hyderabad, and consisted of 1,367 acres of land.

However, by the later years competition arose from other parts of the country and the dream made its realisation at Budd International Circuit in Greater Noida.

At present, the future of high speed motorsport in India has a dubious distinction, an assurance from 13 time Grand Prix winner David Coulthard who zipped around the Hussain Sagar Lake on April 5, earlier this year, have restored our faith.

“I understand there were some issues revolving around aspects like conduct and tax disputes. We are sorting things out, for we cannot ignore an important country like India,” Coulthard had said while interacting with CityTab.

By:Augustin Kurian