Car racing in Hyderabad a flop show again

The long delay in starting the practice session followed by cancellation of the qualification race was hard to comprehend; IRL officials mum

The farce and theatrics refuse to die down at the Hyderabad street circuit.

On a cool and overcast Saturday, a handful of die-hard racing fans swallowed yet another ‘cancellation pill’, as the qualification race for the Indian Racing League (IRL) season finale was called off.

The track wore a deserted look, a few committed fans kept staring at the empty seats, often grazing eyes towards the circuit, only to watch a flock of pigeons or an odd car making rounds. While the fans’ endurance was put to test instead of the drivers, the season finale of the IRL ran into rough gravel, once again.

According to the IRL weekend provisional schedule, which is in possession with  The Hindu, the drivers were supposed to kick off the weekend showdown with an interaction with the media and then enter their single-seater cockpit for the first practice session (FP1) from 11:00 to 11:40 a.m.

Post lunch, the second practice session (FP2) was scheduled from 1:10 p.m. to 1:50 p.m. The qualification was set to begin at 3:10 p.m. and end at 04:45 p.m. However, the race cars wheeled out of their pit lanes for the first time in the day at 4:10 p.m. with the qualification race thrown out of the window.

“We bought tickets to watch the race but since morning, there has been no action. And now, we are hearing there is no qualification race. Once again, we couldn’t watch a race,” a spectator said.

The iconic park land, adjacent to the race track, was supposed to be buzzing with racing enthusiasts and cars zooming at break-neck speed, but only saw race workers enjoying an afternoon siesta.