MotorSport: ATCN To Train 150 Students, 35 Girls In Karting, Girls On Track

MotorSport: ATCN To Train 150 Students, 35 Girls In Karting, Girls On Track

By Niyi Busari

The Automobile and Touring Club of Nigeria (ATCN), an organization that promotes motor sports in the country will train 150 students in karting in schools.

The sport Club will also train 35 young Nigerians who will represent Africa in an international competition where Senegal and Ivory Coast will share 15 slots to complete the 50 for Africa.

 This according to the President of ATCN, Mr Ishaku Bamaiyi is to encourage and promote young talents at the grassroots level.

Established in 2009, ATCN was first affiliated to the Federation International de l'Automobile (FIA) same year and the affiliation was moved to Article 3.1 which deals with taking charge of both Sports and Mobility. FIA is the sole governing body of MotorSport worldwide and representative of over 60 million road and track users from 246 members clubs across the world.

However, ATCN on Wednesday in Abuja rolled out some of their achievements since inception which includes; hosting of the 3rd African Regional Sports Congress in 2017, organised training for Motorsport officials and Marshals, participated in Gymkhana International Prize, Taipei, Taiwan in 2019. They also organised motorsport training for School pupils between the ages of 11 to 17. In 2022, the Club organised Festival of MotorSport which is qualifier to the FIA motorsport Games in 2022.

These achievements helped the Club to gain international recognition with some of its officials elected into the esteemed Committee of the FIA.

In December 2022, at the Annual General Assembly, Mr Ango was elected as Member and President of the FIA Ethics Committee while Mr Denen Ikya was elected as a member. The president of the ATCN, Mr Ishaku Bamaiyi was also elected as a member of the CIK-FIA International Karting and the FIA Drifting Commissions.

The elections are in recognition of the contributions and efforts made by the ATCN in developing motorsport in Nigeria and Africa.

ATCN is in partnership with the Motorsport UK, India, Sri Lanka and Emirates Motorsport Organisation which is the Club's Regional Training Provider appointed by FIA.

In 2022, a representative of FIA regional training provider from Motor Sports South Africa, Stephen Harding, was in Nigeria to train the ATCN team and other motor sports stakeholders and enthusiasts the techniques on how to officiate karting sports.

According to the president on ATCN, Mr. Ishaku Bamayi in an opening remark to flag off the event, “The essence of this programme is to promote motoring sports at the grassroots level by targeting the young ones.

“Please note that this trainings are part of the FIA motorsport development programmes.

“We want to stir up interest of participants through karting in school in order to develop their skill or talent because many of you can build a career in motoring sports, which is a big business all over the world,” he said.

Mr. Ishaku therefore asked participants to watch out for phase two of karting in school, as well as ‘Girls on Track’ in due course.

The 2023 Karting in School training will hold from 7th to 10th of April.