Starter Pack

More options for motorsport newbies thanks to the Novice Cup thats part of the 2018 championship.

- Tuhin Guha

Enzo Ferrari once said, “Racing is a great mania to which one must sacrifice everything, without reticence, without hesitation.” This phrase evokes some strong emotions which may seem like something of an exaggeration to a person who hasn’t been around racecar drivers or witnessed a motorsport event at close quarters. Until a few months ago, I didn’t think any differently either. But fast forward a few months and I can relate to this phrase almost wholeheartedly, having seen the grit, discipline and skill needed to compete in what can sometimes naively look like nothing more than cars running around in circles.

But how do racecar drivers build these attributes? I imagine very few are born with these qualities innately and most need all the help they can get to move up to a competitive standard. Training, fitness and focus all help, but a good competitive atmosphere is equally, if not most, important. The traditional route in motorsport is karting, a wings and slicks F1600-like machine, and then climbing up the single-seater ladder, or eventually rising through the sportscar or GT ranks. But what of newbie racers that have skipped karting entirely, as sometimes is the case in the domestic racing scene?

This is where the JK Tyre Novice Cup springs to mind. A new class introduced by JK Tyre Motorsport this year, this now sits below the Formula LGB4 class. Hari Singh, the director of operations of JK Tyre Motorsport, says the idea behind the series was to bridge the gap. The Novice Cup effectively brings back the older LGB F4 cars from 2004, which were eventually superceded by the current LGB4 and Euro JK 18 machines. But Singh says that the difference is not vast and a Novice Cup car with a well-tuned chassis can be as quick as the current LGB4 racecar. In the recently concluded Round 2 of the JKNRC, the top runners were roughly two seconds off the top-level LGB4 performers.