Prateek Dalal wins Asia Pacific gymkhana gold for India in Thailand

Gold at Pattaya

Prateek Dalal, a driver from Bahadurgarh in Haryana, won the Auto Gymkhana gold medal at the 2026 Asia Pacific Motorsport Championship. The final ran at the Bira Circuit in Pattaya, Thailand, on 25 October 2026, as part of a championship held from 23 to 25 October. Dalal clocked 53.409 seconds on his run. Thailand's Apiluk Lotaga took silver in 53.765 seconds. Dalal's margin of victory was 0.356 seconds, in a category that drew 35 drivers from 16 countries.

Auto Gymkhana is a timed precision event. Drivers thread a car through a tight course of cones, gates and reverse boxes against the clock, picking up time penalties for every cone knocked down or gate missed. It is one of the disciplines FMSCI, the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India, also runs at club level back home, alongside autocross, TSD rallying and gymkhana days that any licensed amateur driver can enter.

From club events in India to a continental podium

Dalal has been racing since 2010 and FMSCI says he has more than 150 national and international podium finishes across circuit racing, rallying, drifting, autoslalom and gymkhana. He has represented India at the Asian Auto Gymkhana Championship in Thailand in 2018, where he won three silver medals and a bronze, and finished runner up in the men's solo category at the 2024 edition in Hanoi, Vietnam. Earlier in 2026 he placed third in the men's solo class at round one of the Asian Auto Gymkhana Championship in Kazakhstan.

That record of domestic and continental results is how FMSCI picks its team for events like this one. The federation has previously said its squads for the Asia Pacific championship mix young karters who are regulars on the National Karting Championship grid with experienced gymkhana and autocross campaigners such as Dalal. For a club racer in India, winning a national autocross or gymkhana round is the first rung on a ladder that can end on a continental podium.

A record field in Thailand

The 2026 edition at Bira Circuit was the biggest yet. The FIA says more than 280 drivers entered from 19 countries, a 40 percent increase on 2025, across six disciplines: three forms of karting, Auto Gymkhana, Autocross and Esports. It was the third edition of the championship, after Malaysia hosted it in 2024 and Sri Lanka in 2025.

For Indian readers who want to try the discipline Dalal just won a continental title in, the route runs through FMSCI's own national Auto Gymkhana and autocross calendar. Clubs such as the Karnataka Motor Sports Club and the Madras Motor Sports Club run FMSCI sanctioned gymkhana and autocross days through the year, open to anyone with a basic FMSCI competition licence. Dalal's own career began exactly there, in domestic gymkhana and autocross rounds, well before Pattaya.

Sources

• Prateek Dalal Wins Gold In Thailand, Becomes Asia Pacific Gymkhana Champion, Amar Ujala
• Prateek Wins Gold In Motorsports After Defeating A Competitor From Thailand, Amar Ujala
• Record Driver Entries for 2026 Asia Pacific Motorsport Championship in Thailand, FIA
• 30 member Indian contingent to compete at FIA Asia Pacific Motorsports in Sri Lanka, The Bridge