X1 Racing League: 30 drivers drafted in six teams
Gaurav Gill and Arjun Maini to race for Delhi and Bengaluru respectively.
(From left to right) Zulfiquar Ghadiyali, CEO private office of sheik Tahnoon Al nahyan (AD Racing Delhi), Yohann J Setna (Team Principal, NK Racing Team), Dhaval Gada(promoter of DG Enterprises, owner DG Racing), Moid Tungrekar (CEO, Mumbai Falconss), Avi Jain (Co-owner, Bangalore racing stars), Akhil Reddy (owner, Blackbirds Hyderabad) during the racers draft of the inaugural edition of the X1 Racing League held in Mumbai.
Mumbai, 11 November 2019: The much anticipated drivers draft for the inaugural edition of the X1 Racing League, a franchise based motorsports competition concluded as 30 international and domestic racers were drafted by six teams. 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 and Delhi teams respectively. The league is powered by JK Tyre Motorsports.
The league which is to 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 will have 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 were 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 were Team Bengaluru who chose Arjun Maini after which Team Mumbai went on to choose Arjun’s brother Kush 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 were the first pick and chose English racer Oliver James Webb. The other male international racers who were picked in the draft include Malaysian 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 Anindith 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 which 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
Kush 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
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