Gulf Dirt Track National Championship on March 17, 18

Mangalore, March 9: The country's best two wheeler riders will be in action in the opening round of the Gulf Dirt Track National Championship 2012, a round of FMSCI National Championship.

The popular Dirt Track National Championship sponsored by Gulf Oil Corporation for the year 2012 will be held in Mangalore on March 17 and 18.

The event will be organized by Mumbai's Sportscraft in association with Mangalore Motor Sports Association and this will be the first five rounds of this FMSCI championship and will be held at the Fisheries College ground, Mangalore.

The total points garnered by the riders over the five rounds of the Gulf Dirt Track National Championship from the last couple of years, the Mangalore leg should be very competitive.

For those unfamiliar with the event, Dirt track racing is like an F1 race on motorcycles, where riders after a mass start speed around a serpentine track, on natural surface often slushy at places looking to cross the finish first.

The race is an exercise in judicious maneuvering and good balance of the bike aroud the many sharp bends. There will be a total of 6 classes in championship round. The riders will fight for the honour as well as the total prize money of Rs 1,75,000 along with the trophies which will be awarded. Whereas for the champions who garner maximum points in all five rounds a total prize money of Rs 4,50,000 and trophies will be awarded.

For racing enthusiasts of Mangalore a treat awaits. Besides some class riding they will also have the opportunity to see latest dirt racing bikes from the TVS Motors, Yamaha and Honda stables. Riders from all over India will be seen in action. Bangalore based- TVS riders Pramod Joshua ,R Natraj who all excelled last season in the glamour class of the event ,Indian expert group A (foreign modified bikes), will be challenged by Harit Noah,Siddhanth Nayak, Adnan Ahmed ,Alen Sequeira, Javed Shaikh , Joaquim D'Silva from Goa, Vineeth Kurup, Shamim Khan and Ganesh Lokhande from Nashik will join the fray.

There will be stiff competition private group B class riders like Jagjith Singh, Kannan Naidu, Kshitij Shukla from Mumbai ,Kush Rao from Goa, Maansingh Thakur from Nashik, Firoz Khan, Ismail Shaikh and Akash Satpute from Aurangabad ,Suhail Ahmed and Wishvas S D from Bangalore.

Yuva Kumar and Abhijeeth Shetty riders from TVS team will be in action in Novice class to challenge them will be Aditya Thakkar,Anish Nair from Nashik,Kieth Das, Wasim Shaikh and Irfan Killedar from Goa.

Sportscraft has already received 95 entries. A maximum of 25 entries per classification will be accepted.

Additionally, there will be separate events for Karnataka and Mangalore riders. The standard entries closed on Wednesday March 7, 2012 and late entries will closes on March 13.

Entry forms and Supplementary regulation are available at the Sportscraft office, Chitrakut ,3 rd floor,Siri Road, Chowpatty Bandstand, Mumbai 400 006, or, on site www.sportscraftindia.com. However all the entries will have to reach Sportcraft before Tuesday March 13.