Roadmap to make country's best racing talents make it big

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd has announced a new roadmap to make country's best racing talents make it big at the international level.

Honda Group of Companies in the Asian region, including India, have created three new teams exclusively for Asian riders in international racing championships, a press release said.

The first of these, Honda Asia Dream Racing, will compete in the historic Suzuka eight hours Endurance Race and JSB1000 class of All Japan Road Race Championship, the premier road racing championship in Japan.

The second team, IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia, is a platform for Asian riders in Moto2 and Honda Team Asia in Moto3 class of FIM Road Racing Championship.

These two classes are the stepping stones to MotoGP, the most premier class of circuit racing.

Minoru Kato, President and CEO, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said, Honda will introduce the Moto3 machine NSF 250R as competition bike in India next year.

India's best racers from Honda India Talent Cup and national championship would be racing on NSF 250R in a separate series running parallel to existing national championships, he said.

On introduction of NSF 250R, Prabhu Nagaraj, vice-president, Brand and Communications, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said NSF 250R would be a huge step up for Indian riders.

Honda two-wheelers India began has been running the Honda One Make Race series since 2008 while Honda India Talent Hunt programme was introduced in May 2018.

It has been curated to identify and groom budding racers under Hondas 'Catch them Young' approach and selected riders are trained at Hondas racing academy to compete with India's best riders, the release said.

Presently, an Indian team has been taking part in Asia Road Racing Championship with Rajiv Sethu and Anish Shetty having shown promise in the four rounds.