The racing company is backed by infrastructure mogul Akhilesh Reddy, who is the director of infrastructure firm Mile Advanced Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which holds a majority stake in RPPL
New Delhi: Racing Promotions Pvt. Ltd.-owned Indian Racing League—a city-based motorsports league that recently concluded its maiden season—is looking to invest around ₹150 crore over the next three years to further develop infrastructure and The league can be marketed across the country.
The racing company is backed by infrastructure mogul Akhilesh Reddy, who is the director of infrastructure firm Mile Advanced Technologies Pvt. Ltd (MEIL), which holds a majority stake in RPPL. Dabur chairman Mohit Burman also has a minority stake of around 5% in the league which he has invested in his personal capacity. Its other stakeholders are racers Aditya Patel and Armaan Ibrahim who are co-founders and directors of the league as well as Abhinandan Balasubramaniam, another co-founder.
Investors made an initial investment of ₹150 crore to develop street circuit infrastructure or race track on land. Around ₹60 crore was invested in safety equipment, electronics, etc., and the running cost of the season including operations, event execution and marketing was ₹50 crore. For the next season, it has earmarked ₹50 crore more for operating expenses.
The company expects return on investment in the next four to five years. It is expected to get returns from its sponsorships as well as media rights. This year it had over half a dozen sponsors including hospitals, infrastructure firms, beverage, tire and lubricant companies. These include Apollo Hospitals, ExxonMobil, Kingfisher and Redbull.
The league was conceptualized in 2018 and was previously known as the X1 Racing League with an investment of $1 million from a group of angel investors, family offices and early-stage venture firms. It follows a six team format named after different cities including Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi and Goa. The teams played head-to-head over a period of four weeks and was telecast on Star Sports. The league was won by Godspeed Kochi.
Aditya Patel, its co-founder said that motorsports is not the easiest sport to organize in India, especially on a large scale. Patel said that in most countries, races are held on proper race tracks, except for the Formula E championship, which is held on street circuits. The league was organized in two venues Chennai and Hyderabad.
“We are yet to have our television viewership numbers since the league ended recently. It has become difficult to take this game to the masses. Even if we take the case of the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, it is a state-of-the-art facility located at a location that is not conducive to commuting from around Delhi. So, for us, we needed to take it to the masses. Street racing was on our mind. At the end of the day, the country needs to generate interest in motorsports," said Patel.
The format of the league is that each team has four drivers with a mix of Indian and international drivers and runs for four weeks. It is a gender neutral platform and for the next year the company is hoping to make it a five or six week program.
“Infrastructure is a big challenge in a country like India for this sport. While one part of the story is the infrastructure itself, the other part of the story is importing cars that comply with safety standards which invite a lot of duties," he said.
The league also intends to go beyond physical racing and further develop its eSports racing, a digital-simulator-based racing competition held in Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Delhi.
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