The X1 Racing League Is Here To Revive Indian Motorsport

Motorsport has historically been a very exciting, fascinating experience for fans and spectators across the world. Just like any other sport, motorsport too has an emotional connect with its fans. A strong grassroots foundation is the stepping stone for sporting success in any country.  Competitions such as F1, WRC, NASCAR etc. are the pinnacle of global motorsport and have played a very important role in making the foundation of motorsport strong, while also setting young aspiring drivers a benchmark to achieve. The main body for motorsport in India – the FMSCI has built a good structure for motorsport in the country, however motorsport yet does not get the recognition it is worthy of deserving. The Indian motorsport industry needs a revival.

    Indian racers Aditya Patel and Armaan Ebrahim have a solution for this revival – The X1 Racing League. With over 15 years of experience in motorsport and having participated in races across the globe Aditya and Armaan are confident that the X1 Racing League will revolutionize motorsport in India and make it accessible to all. The Indian population has taken very well to the league format for sport in the country. The IPL (Cricket) set the trend and other leagues followed suit soon – ISL (Football), Pro Kabaddi League (Kabaddi) etc. These leagues have seen huge success and popularity within a short period, more importantly reviving the sport at the same time. The X1 Racing League is the world’s first franchise-based motorsport racing league. The X1 Racing League has 3 pillars – The X1 Racing League, X1 Racing e-sports, X1 Speed Summit. To uplift the sport set up of a country, it is very important to uplift its stakeholders as well. Indian racers - Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok, Gaurav Gill have achieved great success on the international scale. Motorsport is one of the most expensive sports in the world, this is often one of the biggest barriers to entry for any athlete; especially in India. With the advent of the X1 Racing League Indian talent will be exposed to a homegrown race championship and have an opportunity to race against international race stars. The X1 Racing League aims to not only uplift India’s driver talent pool, but also the country’s engineering and technology capabilities. X1 has decided to go the e-sports way, with the X1 Racing e-sport – i.e. the e-sports arm of the X1 Racing League. E-sports is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world and is quickly garnering a lot of attention, fans in India – games such as Counter Strike, DOTA, FIFA are amongst the most popular. X1 Racing e-sports is a driving simulator-based racing car game. Operated a PlayStation 4 console that is connected to a driving simulator set up – steering wheel, pedals, driving seat. The participants get to play the Project CARS 2 game, but instead of controlling a car via a PS4 controller…the participants must drive it! X1 has given participants a virtual experience of driving a race car; hence making motorsport accessible to all. X1 Racing e-sports is designed as competition across 6 cities – Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Delhi. Top 3 racers from these cities will be selected basis a competition format and will battle it out to be the best e-sports racer in the country. The winner of the e-sports championship will be given a chance to be trained and groomed under Aditya & Armaan to become a professional race driver. The venues for the X1 Racing League are Buddh International Circuit, Noida (30^th November to 1^st December 2019) and Madras Motor Race Track, Chennai (7^th to 8^th December 2019). 6 franchises that will be taking part in the League. Each franchise will have 2 cars and 5 drivers who will be eligible to participate; the drivers are a good mix of Indian and International racers – Gaurav Gill, Narain Karthikeyan, Alex Yoong, Pippa Mann, Mikkel Jensen etc. amongst others. The competition format is quite innovative and unique in comparison to races globally, including a Le Mans style race start where drivers must sprint to their cars! Ravi Krishnan, a pioneer in the field of Indian sport, media is the chairman of the league and will be guiding the young founders towards building a wonderful sports property. The man behind Premier Futsal - Abhinandan Balasubramanian is the Chief Business Officer for X1 and will be looking at replicating the success of Premier Futsal. X1 has locked in some great partners the likes of – JK Tyres, OnePlus, Sony PlayStation etc. The races will be broadcasted on the Sony Network.

   The X1 Racing League is all set to revive Indian motorsport by making it mainstream and give it the due recognition it deserves. The X1 Racing League is a made in India sports property which has the potential of turning around the landscape of Indian motorsport and something Indians should be proud of. The stage is set, the cars are ready, drivers have their foot on the pedals…India are you ready to play the rush?!