Ghosh leaves MRF and joins JK Tyre to partner Gill in #INRC2020
New Delhi, 3 Dec 2020: Former INRC champion and K1000 champion Amittrajit Ghosh left the Reds and joined Yellow on Thursday as the famed Yellow team, JK Tyre unveiled it’s team for the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship to begin at Itanagar for the first two rounds. The King of Indian motorsports, Gaurav Gill, will now have his long-time Mahindra teammate in yellow colours too.
Gaurav Gill with experienced Musa Sherif as co-driver and Ghosh with trusted Ashwin Naik will still be driving XUV300 vehicles, but the factory team entry from Mahindra is missing this year. The thrilling, new compact #MahindraXUV300, then gave some initial hiccups to Gill, the multiple National champion, came back from the blues of Jodhpur, and asserted his supremacy once again, winning the Popular Rally in Kerala. Mahindras have allowed both the top drivers to rally with their vehicles this INRC.
Arjuna Awardee Gill, will lead the team’s challenge once again as Yellows will be alone with their long-time rivals, Reds missing in action this year.
“Gill and Ghosh are two of the country’s finest drivers. Their testing and feedback of our products and development will add tremendous value in our endeavor to return to Indian rallying bigger and better,” Sanjay Sharma, Head of Motorsport, JK Tyre, said.
“We are happy to have them lead our challenge. Not just that, even in these unprecedented difficult times, India’s finest talent have found support of JK Tyre, country’s biggest patron of motorsport, adding up to 24 members who will be sporting our colors in the event.”
Among the accomplished drivers who will turn out in JK Tyre’s canary yellow colours are Dean Mascarenhas from Mangalore (former INRC champion; with navigator Shruptha Padival), Suhem Kabir from Coorg, Fabid Ahmer from Cochin and Syed Salman from Mysore amongst others.
Besides the above, standing true to their ethos of promoting and nurturing young and local talent, JK Tyre is also supporting 4 local teams from North East which includes an all-girls team.
Phurpa Tsering (with Yashwardhan Kumar), Ms Nabam Asha (Ms Dinky Varghese), Hage Naku (Hage Bitu) and Pem Sonam(with Lenin Joseph) are sure to get a lot of support from the fans in Arunachal Pradesh.
The INRC season gets underway in Arunachal Pradesh on December 16, with two back to back rounds. The third round will be held in Coimbatore and the final one in Bangalore.
They will be competing in various INRC categories in different cars but will have only one common theme: JK Tyre.
“We are looking forward to an interesting competition in the challenging terrains of Arunachal,” Gill said, revealing that he has been preparing for the season with renewed vigour. “I am happy to be back with JK after a brief hiatus,” Ghosh added.
About JK Tyre Motorsport:
JK Tyre has been closely associated with the world of motorsports for almost three decades back. The company laid down a long term plan to popularise and promote the sport in the country. Its first target was to change the notion that this was a sport for the elite. So it packaged and redesigned it in a spectator-friendly way, drawing the masses to the sport.
The company then endeavored to spot, nurture and sharpen the drivers to turn them into world champions. With this goal in mind, we conceptualized the JK Tyre National Racing Champion in 1997. Our efforts started paying dividends in just a few years’ time, with the likes of Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandok going all the way to the F1 rung, the highest level of single-seat racing in the world. Since then, a number of stars emerged, including Armaan Ebrahim, the Maini brothers (Kush and Arjun), Anindith Reddy Konda, amongst many others.
Before all this, JK Tyre had a successful stint in rallying too, conquering the scene in the early 90s. At the same time, gradually, we moved on to various disciplines, including cross-country rallying and off-roading, leaving a mark in each of them with their unique and innovative ways.
JK Tyre Motorsports is also very proud of the role it has played in bringing women into motorsports in a big way. Apart from encouraging them to get into the sport through karting as kids, we also gave them opportunities in various national championships. Last year was particularly rewarding for us as an All-Women Racing team was introduced for the first time in the LGB 4 category. In addition, the company also undertook various other initiatives to encourage them to try motorsports, even if for fun to begin with.
To supplement JK Tyre’s entry into the two-wheeler market, the JKNRC hosted the Suzuki Gixxer Cup and the Red Bull Road to Rookies Cup categories and saw enthusiastic participation from across the country.
Today, the company is synonymous with motorsports, and even more so with racing, creating a lot of goodwill for the brand. Right from budding racers to accomplished drivers in the country, everybody owes their rise and success to JK Tyre.
