For the first time in history, Indian high speed racing exponents - Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok have conquered the Asian edition of Race of Champions (ROC) motor sport event held in Bangkok, Thailand. Team India has qualified for the main global event ROC Nations Cup with the incredible feat, which came at the hands of Team Japan who was phenomenally outpaced by Karthikeyan and Chandhok.
The Indian team will now participate in the ROC Nations Cup with support of the entire country and highly enthusiastic racing aficionados. Interestingly, Karthikeyan and Chandhok will face Team Germany, the defending champions including the likes of Formula One icons Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher.
The final of ROC Asia was held at Rajamangala Stadium of Bangkok on December 14, 2012, between Indian and Japanese teams. Evidently, Karthikeyan and Chandhok took title with a 2-0 win in the final against Japan. The Indian team cruised through group stages by winning four races out of six. Further, both Indian drivers won three of their four races.
Expressing his delight on winning the ROC Asia, Narain Karthikeyan, the country's sole representative in Formula One motor sport, said from Bangkok, “It is an incredible feeling to be a part of Team India's success in the ROC Asia in only our first visit. It has been really tough with limited track time but at the end of the day we pulled it off. Every race in a different car was a challenge and it feels good to win in identical machinery. Tomorrow is a whole new day and we will give it our best to do our country proud.”
Further, Chandhok also expressed his happiness and said, “I am really happy for Narain and me as we did a fantastic job to win ROC Asia. The competition was really strong and we were pushed harder than we thought. It's very special to create history as the first ever ROC Asia Champions against the top Asian racing nations. The atmosphere was amazing and I hope all the fans in India tune in to watch and support us on TV tomorrow.”
The ROC is an end of the season contest and is in its 25th consecutive year. The event is participated by world's greatest drivers from all major motor sport disciplines, comprising the likes of Formula One, World Rally Championship, Le Mans, MotoGP, touring cars, Indycar and the X-Games. The spectacle brings together drivers from various racing disciplines and engages them in a free head-to-head battle in identical machinery.
