Starbeast Motorsports wants to be a startup team plucking talent from around-the-world to tap into the interest of the international market. In doing so theyve entered a technical alliance with JTG-Daughtery [#47 Toyota], which is, itself, aligned with Michael Waltrip Racing [#00, #55, #56 Toyota’s]. Last weekend at the ARCA test at Daytona International Speedway, Starbeast imported two stars of its own from Asia. Narain Karthikeyan from India and Darryl OYoung from Hong Kong. Narain Karthikeyan, a veteran of Formula One, the 24 Hours of LeMans (which feels to him like a single seater) and A1GP, had a blast adapting to the closed cockpit cars on Daytona International Speedways high banks. The first shock was climbing in through the window to get seated. The weird thing, it was difficult getting into the car — literally. Putting your legs inside the car and twisting your body. A couple of times I had my helmet on and it got battered and scratched. When we come here its a daunting task you have to start from scratch, said Narain. The only thing in common (to his experience) is the high speeds. You need to get a good feel of the car, honestly I think after three for laps I was okay and I got the hang of it. Its quite bumpy and the car moves around a lot. He said adding the most important aspect is leeping it flat and hang on to it. He added theres no downforce and its comparatively slow, to the cars hes driven. Hes hoping to get a shot at a NASCAR-type ride saying its one of the options for next year if these guys can put it together. Id love to have a go at it.(Auto123.com)(12-27-2009)
