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SPORTS: MOTOR RACING
Steering Under Test
A sport that could generate multi-million dollar revenues
for India is stalled by faction-fighting
By Sandeep Unnithan
 The
Bhathena family in Mumbai which boasts of at least three rallyists is
a divided house. Veteran rallyist Darius Bhathena is a member of the 30-year-old
Federation of Motor Sports Club of India (FMSCI) while his children, rallyists
Navaz (who is also a television presenter) and Farhad Bhathena, are on
the committee of the breakaway Motorsports Association of India (MAI).
When asked how the family keeps the peace, Navaz says, "We don't
discuss it at home."
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CAR CLASH:
POLES APART
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"Motorsport
in India was bogged down and suffering under the FMSCI. We hold
the potential to be No. 2 in Asia after Japan."
Nazir Hoosein, president, MAI
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"The
morale of the racers is low. We are ready for reconciliation but
one has to promote the sport, not oneself."
Khushru Madan, president, FMSCI
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Motorsports in India is similarly caught in a
faction fight in which principles and personalities have mingled in an
unsavoury muddle. It is all the more unfortunate because it has come to
a head at a time when India's race and rally drivers are competing overseas
and its economy is ready to open its arms to the enormous revenue potential
of motorsport.
But instead of seizing the moment, Indian motorsport,
like the Bhathena family dinner table, is split down the middle. World
motorsports' ruling authority recognises one body, the Government another.
One runs two-wheeler racing, one runs four-wheeler racing. And in a final
touch that would be comic if it wasn't surreal, one man-industrialist
Vijay Mallya-is chairman of both groups. It was a move at a rapprochement
that has not quite worked.
The man at the dead heart of the fracas is Nazir
Hoosein, a founder member of FMSCI himself and a senior and influential
figure in the sport's world body, the Paris-based Federation International
de L'Automobile (FIA). It was his breaking away from the FMSCI in October
1999 and the subsequent formation of the MAI which is the origin and the
sticking point of the dispute. When the world body transferred its official
"sporting power", or recognition, from the FMSCI to the MAI,
it set off a chain of events that has led to a stand-off between the groups
and damaged Indian motor racing.
What it means to racers and rallyists is that
unless an event is sanctioned by the MAI, it is not an authorised event
in the eyes of the world body. FMSCI events are in effect "unauthorised",
even though it has 61 affiliated clubs under its wing as opposed to its
rival's six. This February, two days before an FMSCI-organised motor-race
meet in Irungattukottai, Tamil Nadu, Hoosein issued an advertisement warning
participants of "severe penalties" if they participated in the
event. The majority of motor sport clubs were thrown into a quandary.
"This has led to utter confusion among the various sponsors; motorsports
in India is suffering," says Shrikant Karani of motorsport event
promoters Sportscraft. After four years of sponsorship, Castrol pulled
out of the FMSCI-backed Castrol Championships for fear of inviting the
wrath of the MAI.
 Hoosein,
who is one of the four permanent race stewards in Formula One races and
rumoured to have ticked off Michael Schumacher, among others, for unfair
driving, is blunt: "We hold the potential to be Asian No. 2 after
Japan, yet there has been no international rally held in over a decade
since the Himalayan Car Rally was stopped. Motorsports in India was suffering
under the FMSCI and had got bogged down in politicking." The FMSCI
retorts that Hoosein represented them in the FIA for 17 years, yet did
nothing to encourage the sport and has now begun marginalising them. FMSCI
President Khushru Madan says, "The morale of the racers is low and
sponsors are wary. The ruin has set in." Once the motorsport calendar
featured 180 events in a year; now, a good year means 30 events.
It could get dirtier: the FMSCI believes its
last trump card is government recognition. In a letter to the FIA, dated
May 15, 2001, signed by a section officer, the Ministry of Youth Affairs
and Sports stated that it recognised the FMSCI as the ruling body in India.
The FIA has repeatedly stated that its Indian "sporting power"
has been granted to the MAI and in a letter dated July 10 has instructed
the FMSCI to address any "further queries" to the MAI.
Just as the MAI is the only body which can grant
motorcar rally licences, the FMSCI is the only body in India which can
license two-wheeler rallies. Hoosein's MAI says it broke the ice last
month by approaching the FMSCI for a two-wheeler rally licence. Now, he
says, it is the FMSCI's turn to approach it for motor licences. "It's
only the ego part of our dispute that we have to resolve," says Hoosein.
Madan is not easily appeased. "We are ready for a reconciliation,
but you have to promote the sports and not yourself. Nazir has to first
get all the requirements of being a member through government approval."
The tussle over permits has led to a situation
where companies like JK Tyre, which runs race and rally teams, have invested
in a system of dual permits to ensure that their drivers can compete both
in India and abroad. But for a talented driver like 17-year-old Karun
Chandhok, competing in an FMSCI event in India is to run the risk of taking
part in an "unauthorised" event-even if his father Vicky Chandhok
is FMSCI vice-president.
Caught between the cross currents, the huge
revenue potential of the sport is waiting to be earned-a world rally championship
leg can generate $25 million (Rs 115 crore) for the host state. The FIA
has identified India and China as the new markets for motorsport. Yet,
none of the global auto manufacturers now in India have made a big splash
in Indian motorsport. Ford, a major player in world motorsport, is cautious.
Ford India CEO Phil Spender says, "The current impasse about the
leadership of the sport in India appears to be affecting its development.
We hope the various groups can make progress... (It) would encourage greater
manufacturer participation." In terms of foreign exchange earnings,
motorsport could be a golden goose for India. Only, the farmers meant
to tend to it are fighting over it instead.
—With Arun Ram and Sharda Ugra
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