Karun gears up to set the track ablaze in 2006 international circuits
India's rising star all set for new Renault backed series
May 4, 2006

India's racing driver Karun Chandhok today announced that he has secured a drive in the all new Formula Asia Renault V6 series which kicks off at the Sepang F1 circuit in Malaysia on May 13th and 14th. Karun will be driving for the Korean based E-Rain Racing team, and will be backed by Scottish and Newcastle and Amaron apart from his long time principle sponsors JK Tyre.

Speaking on the occasion, Karun said, "After looking at all the options over the last six months, I felt that this new series will be a good step for me to do well and form a long term association with Renault who are one of the major players in world motorsport today. I have a very good equation with the people at Renault Sport in France and I have to thank them for the big effort they made to get me in the driving seat here in Asia. "

The Renault V6 series will be the headline event of the Asian Festival of Speed and has now become the premier category of single seater racing in Asia. The cars are powered by 3500cc Renault V6 engines, producing an impressive 375 Bhp and capable of speeds of close to 300 Kmh. The championship will run at Sepang in Malaysia, Zhuhai in China, Sentul in Indonesia and at Taichung in Taiwan with a possibility of another race in Bahrain. Some of the main competitors include Indonesian A1 GP driver Ananda Mikola, Formula BMW Champion Hans Lin, former Formula Asia Champion Denis Lian and former Formula Renault Champion Marchy Lee.

The first official test session for the series was held at the Sepang F1 circuit last week, and Karun started on a positive note by finishing the day as the fastest driver. At the test and for the season ahead, Karun will be working with the E-Rain Racing team run by Hongsik Jeon from Korea. The team won the Formula BMW championship last year with Bahraini driver, Salmaan Al Khalifa.

Assisting Karun to strengthen the technical side will be his long time friend Anthony 'Boyo' Hieatt, the ace engineer from England, who is currently the team manager for Kimi Raikkonnen's Formula 3 team in the UK and also is the race engineer for Bruno Senna, the nephew of all time legend Ayrton Senna. Incidentally, Boyo has a long history with Indian racing, having engineered the Team JK Tyre Formula 3 cars at the Madras Grand Prix in the early 1990's and since then he has also looked after Narain Karthikeyan in Formula 3 and the World Series. Recently, Boyo has also worked with F1 stars like Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonnen, Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson.

Also present on the occasion, Sanjay Sharma, head of motorsports, JK Tyre, said, "Karun had a test session before committing to the season, which was a calculated decision as he turned out to be the fastest driver, showing good signs before the start of the season. He already has a strong team; E-Rain and with Boyo, makes them a strong package for the season ahead".

It'll be the first time since 2002 that Karun will be going into a season knowing that he has the budget to finish the year. Speaking on the same, Karun said, "I have to really thank JK Tyre for carrying on their support and also welcome on board Scottish and Newcastle and Amaron for this season. I've been training hard again for the last couple of months and feel ready to go out there and fight for the championship".