FMSCI to honour national champions of 2023 season

CHENNAI: The Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India’s annual Awards function will be held here on Wednesday to honour 105 National champions of the 2023 season across various disciplines, promoters and sponsors. Special awards will be presented to winners of international competitions.

Reviewing the 2023 season, FMSCI President Akbar Ebrahim said: “We are happy that motorsport in India made rapid strides in the season gone by with several firsts. One of the highlights was FIM MotoGP making its India debut, something we had announced during the FMSCI awards gala in 2022. The response was tremendous and it put India firmly on the global motorsport map.

“The other big push came by way of launching franchise-based Supercross recently. A refurbished Indian Racing League and Formula 4 races attracted pan-India talent and also foreign competitors.

“Individually too Indians fared well in international competitions. A special mention is to be made of Harith Noah who became the first Indian to achieve a podium finish in the toughest global motorsport event, the Dakar Rally, where he won the Rally 2 class and finished 11th Overall. Further, Prarthana Murugavel did India proud by winning the gold medal in Karting Slalom at the FIA Asia-Pacific Motorsport Championship.

“Overall, there has been a lot of positivity with an increasing number of women taking to motorsport and competing shoulder-to-shoulder with their male counterparts. Looking ahead, we hope to ride the momentum and present an even more thrilling and spectacular 2024 season.”