Sports India

The wait is over. Ace Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan has decided the composition of his teams to take part in the 2006 JK Tyres National Racing Championship after weighing the available options.

Narain’s new teams — Amaron NK Racing and Speed NK Racing will comprise Ameya Walavalkar (23 from Mumbai); Aditya Akkineni (17, Hyderabad); Aditya Patel (17, Chennai) and Akhil Khushlani (16, Hyderabad).

According to a press release here, it was decided that one driver with extensive experience in domestic racing would be selected. As Narain would not be able to attend all the scheduled six rounds of the JK Tyre National Championship due to his commitments as a Williams Formula 1 test driver, this was deemed to be important.

And, this led to the selection of the experienced Walavalkar. The other three drivers were selected based on their lap-times, consistency, natural ability, and their career performances to date.

Two reserve drivers have also been selected — Kartik Shankar (19) and Chennai’s 17-year-old lad Ajay Kini.