Red Rooster Racing has withdrawn from motorsports, citing lack of funds. The reigning INRC champions failed to acquire sponsors and had to cease its operations. One of the most professionally managed teams, Red Rooster Racing could have one day taken Indian on the international rally map, but alas. Cricket can be blamed for the lack of sponsorship to motorsports as corporates are only looking to pump in their money in the bat and ball game. The company will continue with its tuning business in Bangalore.
“There is only so much you can do. When we launched the team, we had said three years. We spent a total of about Rs. 18 crore during this period and it is not possible to keep going unless we get funding from sponsors. We had approached nearly 25 corporate houses seeking sponsorship and made detailed presentations. They all showed interest, but eventually, nothing came out of it. I feel sad but not bad that we are exiting considering that we just couldn’t go on spending without any backing. So, we decided to exit the sport and focus on our core business of preparing high performance cars. Cricket has virtually usurped sports sponsorship in India. Under the circumstances, we couldn’t secure funding for our motorsports programme. Having said that, I do not rule out our return if we can rope in sponsors, but it will take a miracle to achieve that,” Dinesh Reddy, MD, Red Rooster Racing, said.