There were sky-high expectations and buzz leading up to the second round of the Indian Racing Festival at the Chennai Formula Racing Circuit. It was billed as the country’s first-ever night-street racing event, where fast cars went around some of the major landmarks in the city, which has long been considered the cradle of motorsports in India.
But the opening day of the weekend turned out to be a damp squib for the fans as the organisers couldn’t get the circuit ready in time for the action to start as scheduled on Saturday afternoon.
Safety concerns at a few corners of the 19-turn layout meant the organisers had to rework some corner profiles to make the circuit conform to the safety norms required by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body for four-wheel motorsports.
The FIA Circuit Commission member Giuseppe Muscioni inspected the track on Friday, gave provisional approval and also suggested modifications at a few corners for safety reasons. These had to be implemented before racing could get underway. The main concern was the high approach speed into these corners, prompting changes to slow the cars down.
The major headache was at turn-19, which was the last corner exiting Swami Sivananda Salai back onto the start-finish straight on Marina Beach Road.
“In turn-19, the approach speed into that left-hander was very fast, so we had to slow the cars down. This meant we had to do a lot of work and also rearrange the Tecpro barriers at that corner,” said Akbar Ebrahim, President of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI), the governing body for motorsports in India.
“We also had to tighten the corner at turn-10 and bring the barriers in… all this took some time,” he added.
Earlier in the day, around half-past one in the afternoon, it became evident that things were not in place when drivers —both international and Indian— participating in the Formula 4 Indian Championship and the Indian Racing League series were seen leaving the track to return to their hotels. Later, the organisers cited ‘technical issues’ for the delay.
The day’s programme included practice and qualifying sessions for three categories: the JK Formula LGB, the FIA Formula 4 Indian Championship, and the Indian Racing League.
Finally, after a more than five-hour delay, Sports Minister of Tamil Nadu, Udhayanidhi Stalin, flagged off the event near the Sir Thomas Munro Statue on Anna Salai as the Formula 4 Indian championship cars were let loose around the track for the first time for a sighter lap.
But the issues did not end there. After the flag-off, there was a further delay of nearly two hours before the JK Formula LGB cars went out for the first practice session of the day at 9.10 p.m. local time.
The two-day event is organised by Racing Promotions Private Limited and the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu.
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