JK Tyre, one of India’s first motorsport sponsors, will kick-start its 2017 National Racing Championship on July 7, 2017. This season comes with a key addition – the Suzuki Gixxer cup, JK’s first shot at fostering grass root motorcycle racing after having run superbike cups as part of its national championship bill. It will run alongside JK’s Formula FB02, Formula LGB and the Touring Car classes.
Selection rounds for the 2017 Gixxer cup have begun, and are being held in Pune, Bengaluru, Aizawl and New Delhi. 

The racers
The 30-strong grid will comprise 20 riders in the novice category (age 17-24) and 10 riders in the Red Bull Road to Rookies cup (age 12-17); the latter seeing its second run in India. All riders will be trained by coaches appointed by Suzuki. The list of trainers includes Anil Kumar S (Apex Racing, Bengaluru) and racers like Dilip Roggers and Raja Raja. Furthermore, Suzuki is even considering bringing Red Bull’s ace MotoGP riders to mentor the participants.
We spoke to Sanjay Sharma, head of JK Motorsport, and Suresh Babu, national head, marketing, Suzuki Motorcycles India, to dig a little deeper into what changes for 2017.

Going all-India
In a bid to pick racers from all over the country, selections this year have been conducted across India. The organisers have consciously targeted areas close to two-wheeler hotspots like Pune and Bengaluru.
As for picking Aizawl as a selection point, Sharma says “In the North-East, we could have also gone to Guwahati, but there’s racing already happening at Aizawl. The Government has given the locals a defunct airstrip to have fun, and there’s a strong two-wheeler culture there. So instead of expecting a racer from Mizoram/Nagaland to come and participate, he can contest from Aizawl.