Well, UPS is already in NASCAR, but a desi in NASCAR is definitely news. Narain Karthikeyan, who in 2004 became the first driver from India to race in the Formula One world championship, has jotted up another first to his credit. Karthikeyan, who previously has raced in the LeMans series as well for one of the privateer Audi teams, has secured a drive in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, as  Speed TV reported earlier today.

… Narain Karthikeyan «NA-rain kar-thee-KAY-un» will make his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut on March 27 in the Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway. Karthikeyan, who is India’s first NASCAR driver, will drive the Wyler Racing No. 60 SafeAuto Chevrolet Silverado.

SpeedTV further reports that Karthikeyan will drive the No. 60 Wyler Racing truck in selected races, the schedule for which is due to be announced soon.

Interestingly Starbeast Motorsports, a newly formed company that is supporting Karthikeyan’s drive is attempting to bring NASCAR into the consciousness of motor racing fans in Asia and Narain’s hiring seems to be part of that strategy.

At UberDesi, we have keenly followed Narain’s career from the feeder races to Formula 1 and LeMans. Rest assured that his NASCAR sourjourn will be watched with similar interest and covered in detail here.

All the best, Narain. At least this year, we will be watching the NASCAR Truck series. Do us proud.

F1, A1GP, 24 hours of LeMans and now Narain Karthikeyan joins big name drivers like Jean Alesi, Stefan Johansson, Gianni Morbidelli and Johnny Herbert in the new Speedcar championship starting in November this year.

Speedcar championship is a newly formed series that pits 24 identical cars using a 600bhp engine. From the initial looks of it, it’s the Middle Eastern / Asian Nascar series that will probably end up using well known European car brands as sponsors.

Read the rest of this entry »

Being a big F1 fan, I have never managed to catch a complete broadcast of the 24 Hours of Le Mans ever. I do occasionally read about it and keep myself updated on drivers who make it into F1.

The LC70 / LC75 from the Indian Le Mans Project website.

But this weekend when I was digging for information on Narain Karthikeyan’s possible Le Mans ride, I came across a very interesting concept. The India Le Mans Project, an idea formed by Sirish Chandaran, assistant editor at ‘Overdrive’ and Courage Competetion, who will be racing for the 25th time in Le Mans.

Read the rest of this entry »