Sports India

India’s only Formula 1 driver, Narain Karthikeyan yesterday began the process of selecting four young drivers for his two racing teams, to participate in the Formula Rolon category of the 2006 JK Tyre National Racing Championship, commencing on August 20, here.

Narain, together with Amaron Batteries, BPCL and J K Tyres, has created two teams – Amaron NK Racing and Speed NK Racing – and shortlisted 14 candidates for his teams.

As a first step in the selection at Kari Motor Speedway on the city outskirts, the youngsters were asked to familiarise themselves with the cars in the morning session.

Awaiting the winners is a fully sponsored drive for all six rounds rounds of the 2006 JK Tyre National Championship, which will finish in December at the Sriperumbudur track in Chennai.

Narain, who met reporters Monday night, said he wanted to pursue his desire to give back something to the sport which has made him an international sporting hero.

The selected four would benefit enormously from Narain’s experience and knowledge of driving the fastest racing cars in the world.

The teams are likely to be announced within two days.

The aspirants are Aditya Akkineni, Aditya Patel, Akhil Khushlani, Saahil Shelar, Deepak Chinnappa, Ajay Kini, Saran Vikram, Sharan Parek, Kartik Shanker, Ashwin Sunder, Charen Chandran, Sudarshan Rao, Vignesh Devarajan and Kunal Shah.