The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Narain announces his line-up

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Friday, Jul 21, 2006

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Sport - Racing : Motor

Narain announces his line-up

Rayan Rozario

Coimbatore: The suspense is over. India's Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan has announced his team for the 2006 JK Tyre National championship. It's Ameya Walavalkar (Mumbai), Aditya Akkineni, Akhil Khuslani (both Hyderabad) and Aditya Patel (Chennai).

"This is my best bunch. They were selected based on their lap-times, consistency, natural ability and career performances. This will be the strongest line-up in the national championship. We are certainly going to set the trend this year and I mean it. I could have put others in the team. They are not bad but we need to show a strong performance," says Narain.

Narain sees a great potential in his team. "They have different styles of driving. I found Akkineni and Patel very smooth. They certainly make a perfect pair. Akhil is aggressive but a very sensible driver. I feel this is the right combination."

Surprise choice

Walavalkar's inclusion came as a big surprise to many as his name did not figure in the list of 12. "The decision was purely mine. Since I will not be available for the entire championship due to my commitments with Williams, I wanted to have an experienced driver to guide the youngsters. Ameya has extensive experience in domestic racing. His knowledge of Indian racing cars from the past seasons will prove to be a great benefit for the team in its first year of operations," says Narain.

Narain has also picked iAjay Kini (Chennai) and Kartik Shanker (Delhi) as the reserve drivers. "This was not in the scheme of things but I decided it will be an advantage for the team. Kartik is a little inexperienced but he exhibited class and so did Ajay."

The reserve drivers' duty will be to step into the shoes of the main drivers in the event of their inability to attend race weekends due to illness, injury and other commitments. "They will receive some financial support to pursue their racing careers in other categories of domestic racing," says Narain.

Great feeling

Akkineni is thrilled about his inclusion. Speaking from Indonesia, he said: "I was quite confident but, it could have gone either way. I am thankful to Narain for giving me the opportunity and am proud to race for him. Now that I have bagged the chance, I will make the most of it."

Patel made his pleasure obvious too. "I am really, really happy. I want to thank Amaron and Speed (BPCL) for this initiative and Narain for all the pains in running the programme. I have got my exams to write and once through, I will quickly get to work on my physical fitness."

Speaking from Mumbai, Walavalkar said: "Feels great. I was always looking for such an opportunity and it came today. It has strengthened my confidence. Narain has given me the most responsible job. I will try to do my best in helping out my team."

Khuslani wants to get the best results for Narain. "That's the only way I can express my thanks to him. I am already working hard, and now that I am in the stable of the best Indian driver I will double my efforts."

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