Honda Racing India announced first Indian team at Asia Road Racing Championship

Announces new aggressive motorsport direction from 2018

“To develop iconic Indian rider for National & International Championships”

2018 is set to be a cracker of a motorsport season. Going full throttle to expand motorsport in India, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. announced its biggest directional shift in motorsport from 2018 season.

Globally Honda is synonymous with Racing with a glorious history of iconic riders since 1959. In India, Honda 2Wheelers made its debut in motorsports a decade earlier in 2008.

For the first 10 years (2008-2017), Honda 2Wheelers India’s motorsport direction was to ‘Promote Fun Culture in India’ with focus on nurturing, developing and giving professional platforms to Indian riding enthusiasts. And now in 2018, Honda has announced its new direction ‘To develop iconic Indian rider for National & International Championships’ which encapsulates Honda’s aggressive vision to nurture and develop Indian riders of international stature.

This is the first time that Honda is promoting Indian riders in an Indian team in international motorsports arena. The IDEMITSU Honda Racing India team by T Pro Ten10 will see two promising Indian riders – second-timer Rajiv Sethu and the rookie Anish D. Shetty battle it out with 23 other Asian riders in the Asia Production 250cc class. The marquee SuperSport 600cc will see the team’s third rider, 23-year old Japanese rider Taiga Hada compete with 21 other riders. Hada was overall 3^rd in SuperSports 600cc in 2017 FIM ARRC season and is placed 7^th in the first qualifying of 2018 season.

Sponsored by IDEMITSU Lube India Pvt. Ltd., Honda 2Wheelers India will oversee overall team management of the first ever Indian team at the ARRC. The team’s rider management will be undertaken by professional Indian team Ten10 Racing Pvt. Ltd while technical support including bike performance enhancement, modification, data analysis, maintenance and repairs will be looked after by T-Pro Innovation, a professional Japanese team.

Team & Rider Profiles:

About 2018 FIM Asia Road Racing Championship:

The 23^rd edition of FIM Asia Road Racing Championship is Asia’s most competitive motorcycle road racing championship, held since 1996. The 2018 season of the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC) will see 64 riders from 8 Asian countries (Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and India) battle it out in an intense 6 round championship.

ARRC is part of the production-based category of racing, similar to the Supersport World Championship. It consists of 3 open-make classes (SuperSports 600cc, Asia Production 250cc and Underbone 130cc) and 2 single-make development classes. Modified versions of production motorcycles available to the public are featured in the race.