XI Racing League: 30 drivers drafted in six teams

Thirty international and domestic racers were picked by six teams during the drivers' draft for the inaugural edition of the X1 Racing League, a franchise based motorsports competition which was held here on Monday.

Son of legendary F1 driver Niki Lauda, Mathias was picked by the Delhi franchise (AD Racing) while India's Arjun Maini and Gaurav Gill will race for Bengaluru and Delhi teams respectively.

The league, which is to be held between November 30- December 1 in New Delhi and December 7-8 in Chennai, will have four drivers and two cars in each team.

Of the four drivers in each team, there will be one international male, one international female, one India international and domestic racer, a media release said.

Of the two domestic racers picked in each team, one will get to represent the franchise.

Each race will last for 30 minutes and will have three unique team-based race formats per day.

Team Hyderabad were the first to pick in the draft which started off with India's International racers in the first round, they chose Akhil Rabindra.

The next to pick were Team Bengaluru who chose Arjun Maini after which Team Mumbai went on to choose Arjun's brother Khush Maini.

The others picked in the round were Krishna Mahadik by Team Ahmedabad (DG Racing), Gill by Team Delhi and Chennai team (NK Racing) auto-picked their team owner Narain Karthikeyan.

In the male international racers draft, Bengaluru were the first pick and chose English racer Oliver James Webb.

The other male international racers, who were picked in the draft include Malaysian driver Alex Yoong by Ahmedabad, Mathias joined Delhi franchise, China's Frankie Cheng went to the Chennai team, former F1 racer Tonio Luizzi by Hyderabad and Danish racer Mikkel Jensen by Mumbai.

The first female international racer to be picked was Denmark's Michelle Gatting by Bengaluru.

While, English racers Pippa Mann and Alice Powell joined Mumbai and Chennai respectively, Switzerland's Rahel Frey went to Ahemedabad, Denmark's Christina Neilsen to Delhi and Polish racer Gosia Rdest to Hyderabad.

The domestic racers who will be part of the action include Arjun Balu and Yash Aradhya for Chennai, Raghul Rangaswamy and Ashwin Datta for Delhi, Chittesh Mandody and Ameya Walavalkar for Ahmedabad, Sohil Shah and Karthik Tharanisingh for Mumbai, Nayan Chatterjee and Vishnu Prasad for Bengaluru and Arjun Narendran and Anindth Reddy for Hyderabad.

"All teams are equally balanced and look strong. As all the cars are of the same make, it will be up to drivers to show their skills and win the race for their team. We hope that the best team wins the league," said co-founder of X1 Racing, Armaan Ebrahim.

Team Hyderabad: Akhil Rabindra, Tonia Luizzi, Gosia Rdest, Arjun Narendran and Anindth Reddy

Team Bengaluru: Arjun Maini, Oliver James Webb, Michelle Gatting, Nayan Chatterjee, Vishnu Prasad.

Team Mumbai: Khush Maini, Mikkel Jensen, Pippa Mann, Sohil Shah, Karthik Tharanisingh Team Ahmedabad: Krishna Mahadik, Alex Yoong, Rahel Frey, Chittesh Mandody, Ameya Walavalkar.

Team Delhi: Gaurav Gill, Mathias Lauda, Christina Neilsen, Raghul Rangaswamy, Ashwin Datta.

Team Chennai: Narain Karthikeyan, Frankie Cheng, Alice Powell, Arjun Narendran, Yash Aradhya.