JK Tyre presents Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup 2021: 18 make the grid

The first round of the 24th JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship is scheduled from October 22 to 24 at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore.

Coimbatore, 18 October 2021: JK Tyre, India”s leading tyre manufacturer, partnered with Royal Enfield for the first edition of Continental GT Cup, a Manufacturer’s Single Make Cup to be organised by Performance Cars Racing Trust, New Delhi at Kari Motor Speedway, which will be part of the JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship (JKNRC) 2021. The fourth and last round of the event will be held at Buddh International Circuit (BIC), near New Delhi.

Of the 120 riders who take part in the trials, 18 riders were selected for the main event while five riders were kept as stand-byes. The drivers briefing, selection trails were conducted on Monday while training to the selected group was imparted on Tuesday. Two media riders from the trials on Thursday will join the 18 to form a 20-bike grid for the first round.

The first round of the 24th JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship is scheduled to be held here on Saturday and Sunday.

JKNRC continues to run the flagship racing championship for the 24^th year and companies like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor India, General Motors and Suzuki Motorcycles have participated over the years. As Royal Enfield joins the bandwagon, the maiden round of Continental GT Cup attracted over 300 entries and selection trials were held on Monday. The track-spec Continental GT-R650 has minimalistic, yet purpose-built performance modifications which offer an un-intimidating, agile and spirited performance on track, the release said.

According to Srinivasu Allaphan, Director, Sales & Marketing, JK Tyre & Industries: “Being the pioneers of promoting motorsport in India, JK Tyre has been at the forefront in formalising the Indian racing programmes and nurturing young talent in the country…our partnership with Royal Enfield for Continental GT Cup adds another feather to our hat. We are confident that it will definitely give an added fillip to the ever-growing popularity of motorsport in India.”

Speaking about Royal Enfield’s motivation to foray into motorsports, Adrian Sellers, Custom Programme Lead & Manager, Product Strategy & Industrial Design said: “Nurturing and encouraging the spirit of pure motorcycling has been the core philosophy of Royal Enfield for over a century. With a long history of rides and events that have spawned riding communities across the world, we have also actively engaged in racing, with success in top level racing events such as 1914 Isle of Man TT, the 1960 Big Bear Run, the 2020 Daytona at the American Flat Track, and the 2021 DTRA Flat Track ‘Twins Class’ Championship, among several others. In 2019, we developed two race ready Continental GT 650 motorcycles with Harris Performance, leveraging their 40 years of racing experience to make the most track worthy GTs we could, all without fundamentally changing the base motorcycles. The result exceeded our expectations, and so we are excited to continue that story and launch the Continental GT Cup in India.”

Selection Trials Provisional Unaudited Results: Top-18 from 121 riders: 1.Navaneeth Kumar 01:22.6; 2. Karthik Mateti 1:23.01; 3. Anfal 1:23.1; 4. Anish Damodara Shetty 1:23.6; 5. Lani Zena Fernandez (01:24.9); 6. Allwin Xavier (01:25.1); 7. Dhiraj Vijay Baikar (01:25.2); 8. Syed Muzzammil Ali (01:25.3); 9. Amy (01:25.3); 10. Vijay Singh (01:25.4); 11. Jayanth Prathipati (01:25.5); 12. Bharath Balan (01:25.6); 13. Raivat (01:25.7); 14. Sam Paul Osbourne (01:25.7); 15. Rohit Lad (01:25.8); 16. Harshad Sumra (01:25.9), 17. Sudheer Sudhakar (01:126);  18. Meka Vidhuraj (01:26.0);

Stand-byes: 19. Naresh Kaname (01:26.4); 20. Rajkumar (01: 26.6); 21. Pradeep C (01:26.6); 23. Sreenidhi S (01:26.8); 24. Lokesh V (01:26.8).

Editor’s note on 20 October 2021: These unaudited results as per the notice board were later audited and many including the top two were disqualified and the reserves got a chance into the main draw. The top rider was disqualified as he is part of another one-make event, and the second fastest rider, for an unwritten rule, that said that riders should not crash when the track is green. Or else they would forefeit their best lap times. Strange but true indeed. David Bodapati.

For the benefit of doubting Thomases we are publishing the photo of the result displayed at Kari Motor Speedway notice board on 18th.