Narain Karthikeyan, the Formula 1 driver of the HRT team, and JRM Racing's Karun Chandhok, after the 2012 motorsport season, will take part in Asian qualifiers of the marquee Race of Champions. This race, apart from India's Formula 1 drivers, will also feature participation from Chinese F1 test driver Ho-Pin Tung and Han Han, the winner of China Rally Championship and the China Touring Car Championship.
Talking about it karthikeyan said, “It’s really cool to receive an invitation to participate in the Race of Champions. What a fantastic honour it is as well. The competition is the strongest in the world, with only the best of the best from many different forms of motorsport all competing against each other. The added benefit of representing your country is a real privilege, and one which I have done before in my career, so I know how special that feels. Karun and I are definitely going to enjoy ourselves, racing against our peers in some pretty cool machinery, but we will also be gunning for victory, and with a bit of luck, we will bring glory to our nation.”
Chandhok too could not hide his excitement and said, “Narain and I haven't been in the same team since 2004 when neither of us was an F1 driver. A lot has changed in life since then and it should be a lot of fun to work together again. ROC has always attracted some of the biggest names in world motor sport including Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher and Mick Doohan and it will be nice to spend time with all these guys as well.”
The winners of the Asian qualifiers, will then pit against the champions of the racing world such as Jorge Lorenzo, the winner of 2012 MotoGP and Ryan Hunter-Reay, the winner of 2012 IndyCar. However, it won't be easy for the Indian racers to win the competition as they will face tough competition from Tung and Han, who managed to reach the semi-finals of the Nations Cup in 2008.
The tournament will take place on December 15 and December 16, 2012 and the venue would be Bangkok's Rajamangala stadium. Race of Champions is a unique tournament as it is the only race in the world where racers use identical cars and participate in head-to-head races on parallel tracks.
Karthikeyan hasn't so far done well on the Formula 1 tracks and this tournament is a good platform for him to add a feather to his cap.
