On Sunday, when Mahindra Racing competes in the 100th Grand Prix at Misano, Italy, apart from a century of races, the Indian firm will be completing five years of motorcycle racing.
The company will be racing the Mahindra MGP30, unveiled in February this year, with an upgraded gearbox.
A team (two riders) of Mahindra Racing will be using the MGP3Os, while four other participating teams are also using the motorcycle. Mahindra Racing will participate in the Moto3 class, where the engine capacity is restricted to 250cc.
An upgradation of the engine is also on the offing, but only for the next season of the MotoGP World Championship series, the highest platform of motorcycle racing.
For Mahindra Racing, part of the Mahindra & Mahindra Group, the journey started in 2011, when it became the first Indian motorcycle manufacturer to participate in the series. Till date, Mahindra Racing is the only Indian constructor in the MotoGP series.
“I find it difficult to believe that we started just five years ago, and in this short span of time, with our MGP30 developed in-house, we have redefined what an extreme machine can do and we have established our presence on the global racing scene,” M&M Chairman Anand Mahindra said in a video address to the team.
Beyond racing“As exhilarating as the MotoGP is, it also brings us benefits beyond racing. It pips us against world-class competition and so it makes us challenge ourselves technologically; it fuels innovation, our learnings permeate across all our other products, and most importantly it makes us masters of mobility and sets us on the path to becoming a global brand,” he added.
For Mahindra Racing, 2016 was also its best season — it has bagged six podium wins, including a first.
The MGP30 comes with a single-cylinder 249cc DOHC four-stroke engine and a drum throttle body with twin electronic fuel injectors. The vehicle comes with a Brembo radial calliper with double Brembo disc front brakes. a It also has an aluminium perimeter frame with adjustable steering head and adjustable swing arm pivot position, and a wet plate clutch disc.
Meanwhile, Mahindra Racing is setting up a new facility in Brebbia, Italy, close to the existing one in Varese, to make racing engines. While investments were not disclosed, M&M expects to use technologies from this facility for its two-wheelers in European markets.