Akshay Gupta, racer and tech founder, has officially inked a deal with Mertens Motorsport for the highly anticipated 2024 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) season, which will take place at the Nürburgring circuit in Nürburg, Germany.
The NLS is widely renowned as one of the oldest and most esteemed endurance racing championships globally since its inception in the 1970s. Gupta will be India’s sole racer in the competition, set to compete against over 300 drivers and 117 cars.
Having begun his career as a professional racer in 2010, Gupta finished runner-up at the Buddh International Circuit for Toyota in the season finale of the National Championship in 2013. His talent also earned him recognition from Nissan, who selected him after a rigorous driver selection programme out of 10,000 drivers in India to compete in their Asian GT Academy Finale, which was held in the UK.
The 31-year-old will pilot the Hyundai i30N (car number 492) for Mertens Motorsport in the upcoming NLS season.
Parallel to his racing endeavours, Gupta’s urge to fulfil his passion for racing led him to entrepreneurship, where he founded a “Connected Car” tech start-up called Scouto, which was acquired by online used-car retailing unicorn Spinny in December 2021.
Speaking about the Mertens Motorsport deal, Akshay Gupta commented:
“Racing at the Nurburgring circuit has always been a dream. It used to be my laptop wallpaper for 15 years before I got to race here last year. The experience gained last year taught us a lot about the track, level of competition, cars, and different conditions. This year, the goal is pretty clear. I want to conquer the most challenging racetrack out there. We are in a championship-winning team, in one of the most tightly fought categories: VT2-F, racing with equally competent teammates with 10,000 km of simulator practice put in. I am confident that this season will bring us some good results and I look forward to hoisting the Indian flag on the podium as many times as I can.
“Since the day I was 2 years old I have only played with cars. When I turned 4, my dad got me a go-kart and that consumed all of my playtime as a kid. It was only in my early teens that I realised that there’s a career called being a racecar driver and ever since that day I have been pursuing the dream to keep racing cars across the globe. It is the most expensive sport in the world, and for the son of a bank manager, I had to find creative ways to get back into it. After having sold my company, I’m thrilled to return to my first love full-time, racing cars.“
Daniel Mertens, Team Owner, Mertens Motorsport, said:
“I am very pleased that Akshay Gupta is moving to Mertens Motorsport this season. We did the pre-season testing in March and immediately the chemistry was right, this is very important for a race team given that we compete in endurance racing where the cars are shared with other racers. It’s remarkable the lengths he goes to compete in the championship. We welcome him onboard and thank him for putting the faith in our team.“
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