Mumbai’s Aashi Hanspal created a record of sorts in the 24-Hour Dubai Endurance Karting Championship, held in Dubai’s Motorcity over the weekend. Here she clinched two podium places along with her teammates in the Overall Championship. Further, the fourteen-year-old prodigy became the only Indian girl to compete in this World Series event, and thanks to her team EBC Brakes’ brilliant run in the previous three rounds, she landed two podiums as well.
The annual Dubai Endurance Championship consists of four rounds, with the last one being the 24-Hour Championship. In Round 1, the teams raced against each other for 400 laps, in Round 2 for 6 hours non-stop and in Round 3 for 12 hours non-stop.
The all-Indian team, featuring Bengaluru’s Arjun Manjunath and Aditya Swaminathan, Delhi’s Rachit Singhal, and Mumbai’s Aashi and Jamie grabbed the second position in the Overall Championship as well as the first position in the Nations Cup.
This event added another feather to Aashi’s cap as she was previously conferred with the Outstanding Women in Motorsports Award by FMSCI in 2019, and was the only Indian girl to take part in the FIA Girls on Track ‘Rising Stars’ initiative in France in October this year.
FMSCI Women in Motorsports Commission Chairperson Sita Raina congratulated Aashi on her successful run in the Dubai Endurance event, saying, “Aashi is a budding star and has already made her presence felt not only in India but also on the international stage,” she said. “This was not an easy competition for someone so young,” she added.
Speaking about the event, an excited Aashi said, “I was thrilled when DojoMoto Racing invited me to race for Team EBC Brakes along with fellow racers from India. We worked well as a group and won two trophies, one of which as a Team India representative.”