BENGALURU: Eight children, including two girls, in the age group of 10-14 years, made it to the first batch of riders to participate in the FIM MiniGP World Series India 2022 following two sessions of tryouts and evaluation by experts at the Meco Kartopia track, here on Saturday, July 2.
The full grid of 15 riders will be announced later this month after a similar exercise in north India.
The selected riders are: Nandanan Mahendran (Chennai), Rakshith Dave (Chennai), Jinendra Sangave (Kolhapur), Kabilesh R (Chennai), Shreyas Hareesh (Bengaluru), Rehbar Islam Baktoo (Delhi), Aleena Shaikh (Bengaluru) and Anastya Pol (Bengaluru) and Dev Agasthya (Bengaluru, Reserve rider).
Also included in the list of first batch is Chennai’s Rakshitha Dave who could not participate in the trials here owing to injury she suffered in a national championship race recently, but hopes to recover fully in time for the first round of the FIM MiniGP World Series India, later this month.
The rider evaluation panel included: BS Sujith Kumar, FIM-Asia vice-president; Emmanuel Jebaraj, a former multiple national champion; and Marco Rossetto, product manager, Ohvale-India.
FIM, the World governing body for two-wheeler racing, in conjunction with Dorna Sports, promoters of the FIM MotoGP, launched the MiniGP Series in 2021, as part of the Road To MotoGP programme, aiming to create an equal platform for young riders around the World to begin their motorcycle racing careers.
The series is restricted to riders in the 10-14 years age-group. The top two riders at the conclusion of the series will take part in the World Series final round to be held at Valencia, Spain, in November.
Rossetto said: “We are happy that the FIM MiniGP World Series India, which is part of the global series, finally got off the ground here in Bengaluru on Saturday with the tryouts. We selected eight kids plus a reserve rider today after evaluation by experts. In another week, we will have a full grid of 15 riders who will participate in the series. Once again, we thank the FMSCI for granting us permission besides actively involving in the programme.”
The first round of the FIM MiniGP World Series India 2022 will be held at the Meco Kartopia, Bengaluru, on July 23-24, before moving to Hyderabad for the next two rounds and then returning to Bengaluru for the final two rounds. Each round will comprise two races.
The selected riders will compete on equal Ohvale GP-0 160 machinery (Mini bikes), manufactured in Italy, while Pirelli is the official single tyre supplier for all the FIM MiniGP World Series with a standard tyre allocation given per event. All the five rounds (10 races) will be run on karting tracks that meet minimum standards set by the FIM or the national federation.
India, along with Australia, Austria, Indonesia, Japan and Qatar are the new additions to the Series that already includes 10 other countries – France, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, North America, Portugal, Spain, the UK and Alpe-Adria.
THE CALENDAR
July 23-24: Round 1, Meco Kartopia circuit, Bengaluru
August 20-21: Round 2, Chicane circuit, Hyderabad
August 27-28: Round 3, Chicane circuit, Hyderabad
Sept 10-11: Round 4, Meco Kartopia circuit, Bengaluru
Sept 24-25: Round 5, Meco Kartopia circuit, Bengaluru
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