ich will begin next year, will consist of 25 identical cars. The cars will be prepared by TRD and Bangalore-based Red Rooster Racing. There will be exhibition races later this year at the Buddh International Circuit in Noida. The participants are in the 15-24 year age group.
Selection of drivers for the series began with online registrations, which was as high as 3303. The number was pruned down to 900 and reduced to 70 after the first camp. The first camp has just concluded after auditions in Pune, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. In the first camp, the applicants were taught the basics of racing like posture and racing lines. In the second (in Bangalore, May 18-20), there will be a dedicated trainer for each driver, track time and lectures, theory, analysis and training. The third will be at the Madras Motor Race Track (Irangattukottai, Sriperumbudur). The 70 will be reduced to the final number of 25 after the second and third camps. The first camp saw evaluations being done on karts, while the second one will be the same. The third camp will see the Etios race cars being used. For the actual races in 2013, the Kari Motor Speedway (Coimbatore), MMRT and BIC tracks will be used.
The evaluators in the first camp were former and current rally and race drivers N Leelakrishnan, Farad Bhathena, Nawaz Sandhu, Karna Kadur, Amittrajit Ghosh and Karnadeep Singh Sandhu.
Asked about the extent of modifications on the cars, Ramesh said: “There will be no modifications on the stock engine. Only suspension and safety modifications have been done. The idea is not to make it too different from stock cars.”