Formula 4 to kick up night dust on roads around Island Grounds

CHENNAI: More than three decades after the Madras Racing Circuit in Irungattukottai in the outskirts took Chennai to the national and international racing map, the sport is all set to enter the heart of the city in about five weeks from now.

Fuelling the excitement, the Formula 4 category event scheduled on December 8 and 9, christened Chennai Formula Racing, will happen not on exclusive track but on the roads around the Island Ground, that too at night, promising to make it a spectacle.

Formula 4 (or F4) is an open-wheel car racing that was introduced for junior drivers to bridge the gap between kart racing and F3 category. However, there is nothing ordinary about this, as the cars are powered by 1,600 cc engines that can churn out 160 bhp power and go as fast as 250 km per hour.

The event will happen on the Chennai Formula Racing Circuit, a 3.7-km stretch that is being developed on public roads around the Island Grounds.

“The racing circuit commences from Island Grounds and covers Flag Staff Road, Pallavan Road (junction), Sivananda Road, and Napier Bridge, and ends at the Island Grounds,” said the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA). It will be the first race to be conducted on the road during night hours, said officials, adding that the circuit would have 19 corners while the pit and paddock structures would come up inside Island Grounds.

The Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) will develop the circuit at Rs 42 crore, of which the CMDA handed over Rs 15 crore on Thursday. This would be spent on installing crash barriers among other things.

PK Sekarbabu, the Minister in charge of CMDA, handed over the cheque to SDAT officials in the presence of Sports Development Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin.