Top rally driver Gaurav Gill returns to race track with X1 Racing League

The inaugural XI Racing League begins at the Buddh International Circuit this weekend with a hope that it will revive the stagnant motorsport scene in India. The league, a franchise-based motorsports competition founded by racers Armaan Ebrahim and Aditya Patel, will see six teams fighting it out for the title. A total of 30 international and domestic racers have been drafted in six teams for the first edition of the competition.

The second and final round will be held in Chennai on December 7 and 8. Mathias Lauda, who is son of Formula 1 legend Niki Lauda, will be racing for the AD Racing Delhi Team.

"I think the franchise-based format is a great format for motorsports. It works for all the other big sports like football and so on. Hopefully, the X1Racing League will grow over the years. A new format where international and domestic drivers race together will make the competition very interesting," said Lauda. India's top rally driver Gaurav Gill will also be racing for the Delhi team, marking his return to the race track after a long gap.

"This league will be unique because all the drivers in the competition will come from different disciplines of the sport such as Formula Racing ground, GT background or sports car racing. It will be interesting to see how all of us compete against each other," said Gill. Former Formula 1 driver Alex Yoong is excited to compete in a team-based motorsports tournament.

"In motorsports, we hardly get to compete as a team, so I am looking forward to it. I think the X1Racing League is a great idea. We have seen the franchise-based tournament has worked for cricket. We'll have to see how it works for motorsports in India," said Yoong. The X1Racing League will have six teams comprising of five drivers and two cars in each team. Of the five drivers in each team, there will be one international male, one international female, one India international and two domestic racers. One of the domestic racers will represent the team in the race.

Each round will take place over two days, with each day starting off with a practice session, followed by qualifying and three back-to-back races. Every round will have six different races and each race will last for 30 minutes and will have three unique team-based race formats per day.