Karna Kadur

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Date of Birth: 24th June 1988
Team: Arka Motorsports

Karna Kadur (born 24 June 1988) is an Indian National Rally Champion. He began with road racing and also achieved immense success in Indian rallying with seven National rally titles in different classes. He won two Overall National Rally Championship victories 2016 and 2022 with Arka Motorsports. He is with Arka Motorsports and drives in MRF Tyres colours under the mentorship of N Leelakrishnan, his engineer and tuner. He is also the first driver to get a National Championship title for Volkswagen Polo along with co-driver Nikhil Pai.

Karna was given his first taste of motorsport in a Motocross bike at the age of six. He began participating in local Motocross events at the age of nine. His parents Prakash Kadur (former Indian rally champion) and Nirmala Prakash were instrumental in showing support in his career. Later Karna moved on to Karting Championship events and eventually made his way to the National Racing championship where he drove the Formula Rolon series till 2006. In 2009, Karna took a short break after suffering a shock loss in his family and returned with rallying as a privateer in his first outing.

In the same year, Karna was selected through Red Rooster Racing’s Talent Identification Programme by N. Leelakrishnan and went on to win the Rally Star Cup Championship.[1] He was the Motorsports Manager and development driver with Red Rooster Performance in 2009.

In 2010, Karna was promoted as the team’s fourth driver in a Mitsubishi Group N Cedia. He was also the Driving Instructor at Red Rooster Performance Motorsports Academy. However, Red Rooster Racing pulled out of motorsports citing lack of sponsorship at the end of the season.

In 2011, Karna participated as a privateer supported by Red Rooster Performance and went on to win his first national title in the Group N Indian National Rally championship.

In 2012, Karna finished 1st runner up in the overall Indian National Rally Championship driving a Mitsubishi Group N Cedia prepared by N.Leelakrishnan of Red Rooster Performance.

In 2014, Karna was the stand-in driver for Team Mahindra Adventure.

In 2015, Karna was brought in as the second driver at Team Yokohama India. He partnered with an Australia-based Indian International Co-Driver Vivek Ponnusamy. He went on to drive a Group N Volkswagen Polo prepared by N. Leelakrishnan of Red Rooster Performance. The pair won the 1600 Group N championship.

In 2022, Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai once again won the fmsci Blueband Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) for four-wheelers with a round to spare.