The Ceat Indian Supercross Racing League (ISRL) made its debut at Pune’s Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, attracting a crowd of 10,000 spectators. Rally heavyweight CS Santosh’s team, BigRock Motorsports, has taken the overall lead after making it to the podium in all the races and securing two race wins.
- BigRock Motorsports leads from BB Racing
- Round 1 in Ahmedabad on February 11
Indian Supercross Racing League explained
With franchise-based sports like the IPL seeing tremendous popularity in India, the league has taken this format and applied it to supercross racing for the first time in the world. These Supercross races are conducted on indoor dirt tracks, and feature steep jumps and obstacles.
Six teams have signed up for the inaugural season, and these include some prominent names in the motorsport world – Arjuna award winner Gaurav Gill, CS Santosh and Dhruv Mohite – who are fielding their own teams.
A total of 48 racers were selected after an auction process and the final grid featured some big names – 9-time Australian MX and SX champion Matt Moss and 4-time South Africa Supercross Champion Anthony Raynard, to name a few. Honda, KTM and Kawasaki have provided the bikes for different teams.
There are four categories – 450cc international, 250cc international, 250cc India/Asia mix and finally Junior 85cc. For the inaugural round, the Junior 85cc category was limited to just a demo run, with points being handed for the other three. In the evening, each team selected one racer from the senior classes to compete in an All-star race, which saw the 450cc and 250cc riders take to the purpose-built track at the same time.
Of course, since this is a league format, the aim is to score as many points as possible for the team as a whole. “This is a league sport, this is not an individual sport,” explained Gaurav Gill.
“For example, when I go and do something in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, I want to win for myself because I’m an individual entrant. But here, we’re looking at the points tally and for the team to benefit at the end of the day. So, smart decisions, mature rides is something that I am hoping for.”
Strong debut for BigRock Motorsport, Jordi Tixier
BB Racing’s Jordi Tixier enjoyed a strong run with victory in the 450cc international and All-star races.
But BigRock Motorsports has taken the overall lead in the league standings after making it to the podium in all the races. Australian racer Reid Taylor won the 250cc international race, while Thailand’s Thanarat Penjan won the 250cc India-Asia mix race. Further bolstering the team’s points haul, both Cedric Soubeyras and Matt Moss finished on the podium (second and third, respectively) in the 450cc international race, behind Tixier. Moss followed that up with a second place finish in the All-star race.
Indian Supercross Racing League calendar, tickets
The league will now head to Ahmedabad’s EKA Arena for Round 2 on February 11. The finale will be held at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on February 25. Tickets will go on sale on BookMyShow in the coming days.
All rounds will also be streamed live on JioCinema and Sports 18.
Dipan Sur
