Breaking New Ground

The national motorcycle racing championship 2012 starts tomorrow. Read on to know why we think the championship will be bigger and better this year

The 2012 season of the MMSC (Madras Motorsport Club) national motorcycle racing championship is about to kick-off this weekend, with the first of the five rounds to be held at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore.

The engineering services company SIDVIN has returned as the title sponsor of the championship this year and along with the other sources, the organisers will be distributing Rs 25 lakhs as prize money to the winners, an amount unheard of in Indian motorcycle racing.

To add to that, FMSCI (Federation of Motorsports Clubs of India), the governing body for motorsport in India, have made some positive changes to the structure of the championship. The 135cc and 165cc group D classes are reserved for the novice riders who aren’t allowed to modify their bikes. The new 165cc group C class will have open participation and allows certain modifications the bike while the 165cc group B and 600cc group A will be the elite classes, with no restriction on bike modifications. The effects of the changes are already visible as the FMSCI have announced 220 riders entries and nine team registrations already.

Most notable feature, however, is the introduction of the manufacturer’s championship. The manufacturers of the bikes raced will be awarded points based on the result and the one with the highest points at the end of the season will win the title. This will create competition and interest among the bike makers which will eventually bring in their active participation.

Among the one make races, Honda will introduce the new CBR 150R class and a team championship in the CBR 250R class. Yamaha will be introducing the YZF R15 version 2 with Daytona race kits and TVS will run their own one-make series along with the national championship. And there’s more! Each of these three companies will be sponsoring their prodigies in various international racing events.