India's national car racing season opens at Kari Motor Speedway with 17 races, BREN Raceway next on 13 to 15 November

India's oldest circuit racing championship came back to life at Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore on 24 and 25 October. The CTR-JK Tyre FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship opened its 29th season there with 17 races across six categories over two days, according to the championship's own pre-event release of 22 October.

The entry list says something about where Indian racing is right now. The Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup ran two separate grids, 20 riders in the amateur class and 15 in the pro class. Drivers from Malaysia and Sri Lanka were on the entry, as were women racers from across the country. The single-seater classes, LGB Formula 4 and the Novice F1300 Cup, carried the familiar names of the junior ladder, with Dhruv Goshwani, Monith Srinivasan and Sandeep Kumar among them.

What actually happened at Kari

Day one, on 24 October, held nine races. Arya Singh won the LGB Formula 4 race, which was cut to 11 laps after four laps behind the safety car, by 2.456 seconds, after Mehul Agarwal spun late. Kabir Sahoch took both amateur Continental GT Cup races, by 2.298 seconds and 3.218 seconds. The closest finish of the day came in the pro class, where Coimbatore's Senthil Kumar won race one by 0.025 seconds. Arjun Narendran won the Indian Super Touring Cars race by 10.042 seconds, Aman Nagdev the Indian Touring Cars by 20.631 seconds and Deepak Ravikumar the Indian Junior Touring Cars by 5.043 seconds. Rain arrived late in the day and brought out a red flag.

Day two, on 25 October, ran eight more races. Dhruvh Goswami won the first LGB Formula 4 race by 0.356 seconds. The second was red-flagged after nine laps because of rain and poor visibility, with Balaprasath winning from pole by 0.392 seconds. Biren Pithawalla of Team N1 Intervalve won a rain-hit Indian Super Touring Cars race by 2.480 seconds after a final-corner collision. The weekend's tightest result was not for a win at all: in the F1300 Novice Cup, Ruthvik Reddy beat his teammate Yash Vikram Singh to fourth place by 0.004 seconds.

Three Indian circuits, one calendar

The calendar JK Tyre published on 19 August listed four rounds at three venues, two at Kari Motor Speedway, one at BREN Raceway in Bengaluru on 13 to 15 November and the finale at Madras International Circuit in Chennai on 11 to 13 December. The season then started in late October, with organisers counting the 24 and 25 October meeting as round one.

For readers in Bengaluru, that November date matters. BREN Raceway is the newest of the three and carrying a round of the national championship is a serious test of a young venue. The format is also the most honest route into car racing in India for someone who is not a teenage prodigy. The Continental GT Cup amateur grid, the F1300 Novice Cup and the Levitas Cup Rookie class, won at Kari by Aadam Junaid, exist precisely so that first-time racers have somewhere to start on a homologated circuit with marshals, medical cover and timing.

The other half of Indian single-seater racing is on a separate track. The Indian Racing Festival, run by the same Chennai Turbo Riders group that now co-promotes the national championship, takes F4 India and the Indian Racing League to the Buddh International Circuit next, before a night street race in Navi Mumbai in December.

Sources

• FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2026 set for season opener in Coimbatore, IANS, 22 October 2026
• JK Tyre National Racing Championship 2026 kicks off with a day of close battles at Kari Motor Speedway, Evo India
• CTR-JK Tyre Indian National Car Racing Championship 2026 opens with high-speed drama at Kari Motor Speedway, The Covai Mail
• Final corner collision and 0.004s photo-finish headline as Indian National Car Racing Championship 2026 round 1 ends, IANS, 25 October 2026
• CTR-JK Tyre FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2026 unveiled, JK Tyre Motorsport, 19 August 2026