The 2019 motorsport season is ready to take off with the National Motorcycle Racing Championship just around the corner. Honda 2Wheelers India made an announcement today pertaining to their plans for the season. To improve the standard of the sport, they have also brought their Moto3 machine, the NSF250R to India and will train newly selected riders on the same for the NSF250R Honda Talent Cup.
The group's motorsport division, Honda Racing India has plans to revolutionise motorsport and motorcycle racing in India by finding, training and developing young and talented riders for the National and International championships.The NSF250R is a well thought of decision, that has come right on time as per the roadmap.NSF250R is the original race machine developed exclusively by Honda Racing Corporation for the world’s best racing championship.
Raising the bar further, the IDEMITSU Honda India Racing team is all set to debut in the premiere, Pro-Stock 200-300cc category of Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship. Sarath Kumar has been selected to lead the assault in the Pro Stock 200-300cc class along with 2018 Pro stock 165cc and ARRC champion Anish Shetty and Abhishek Vasudev.
Honda has numerous victories in the Pro Stock 165 category, and have earned triple crown finishes for five years in a row. Three riders, B Aravind, Yashas R.L and K.Kannan will be piloting the Pro Stock 165cc machines that are based on Honda's CBR 150R.
The promising rider from Chennai, Aravind B is the winner of Endurance Race Championship for 2 consecutive years whereas Yashas R.L, with a positive perspective, started racing from 2016 and has been part of the One-Make Championship. Kavin Kannan was the close contender in the Pro-Stock 165cc national championship last year.
The new NSF250R Honda Talent Cup is the perfect stepping stone for India’s talented young riders to improve their skill giving them an opportunity to fast track their international racing career. In the debut season, 8 of India’s stars of future will ride the same Honda machine as Moto3.
The youngest riders include – 12-year-old Sarthak from Pune, 14-year-olds Kavin and Geoffrey from Chennai, 15 year-old Mohammad Mikail (2018 Honda CBR150R Talent Cupwinner), 16 year old S. Varoon, 17-year-old Mohsin from Mallapuram, 18 year old Charan T. from Chennai and finally 19-year-old Kritik Habib from Gadag, Karnataka (2018 IDEMITSU Honda India CBR150R Talent Cup– First Runner Up).
“Worldwide, racing starts at very young age. To address this problem in India, we introduced the IDEMITSU Honda India Talent Hunt - a platform to identify young riders in 2018. Already, these young guns are showing high-potential. As next step, Honda is now bringing the World to India with the Moto3 machine NSF250R. This revolutionary step is the first ever by any manufacturer and will exponentially accelerate development of future stars of racing and propel them in the international arena too. Parallely, with the debut into Pro-Stock 200-300 category, Honda will challenge itself to further lead and expand the motorsport culture in India.” said, Mr. Prabhu Nagaraj, Vice President – Brand and Communications, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd.