MUMBAI: Star Sports has come to an agreement with Japan Race Promotion (JRP), promoters of the Super Formula Championship, for live telecast of Super Formula series in India.

The premier Japanese single-seater championship will thus become the only automobile racing championship, other than Formula 1 to enjoy live telecast in the Indian territory.

This season’s grid is extremely impressive with India’s first Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan driving for Team Impul Hoshino Racing, among several highly-rated drivers including former F1 pilots Vitantonio Liuzzi and Kazuki Nakajima. 2010 title winner Joao Paulo de Oliveira is Karthikeyan’s teammate at Team Impul.

Star India president-sports Nitin Kukreja said, “This association is in line with our aim of creating a multi-sport culture in India, and we’re confident that the telecast of this exciting championship will fuel the growth of motor sports viewing in the country.”

“Narain’s participation in the championship along with the other celebrated names has already sparked immense interest amongst the Indian audience,” Kukreja added.

“It is great to see Super Formula being telecast live in India as there is already a lot of interest among the fans and being able to watch the races live will certainly boost its popularity,” commented Narain.

“The races are close, exciting and unpredictable – with pitstops and the tricky weather in Japan like we saw last time around so it’ll definitely make for great racing,” he went on to add.

The next round of the Super Formula series is scheduled to be held at the Autopolis Circuit on 14 September. The race will be live on Star Sports 4 and Star Sports HD 2, from 10 am onwards. 

Held across eight rounds in 2014, Super Formula, erstwhile known as Formula Nippon has been running since 1973, with its driver roster including Michael Schumacher, Eddie Irvine, Pedro De La Rosa and Ralf Schumacher.