Akshay Gupta's journey to the racetrack wasn’t paved with privilege—it was powered by persistence. Born with clubfoot and raised in a middle-class home in Ahmedabad, Gupta fell in love with speed as a child. But it wasn’t until his early twenties that he faced the full financial force of motorsport in India. After a promising start that saw him become India’s finalist at the Nissan GT Academy Asia and a scholarship recipient for the MRF Formula 1600 series, Gupta hit a wall—he simply couldn’t afford to race, despite coming from a financially comfortable background. 

So, he built a business. In 2017, he launched Scouto, a connected car tech startup aimed at improving road safety using telematics and ADAS. The process of raising capital—from cold emailing investors to securing VC backing—sharpened the very skills he’d honed pitching motorsport sponsors for years. In 2021, Scouto was acquired by used-car unicorn Spinny, giving Gupta the financial freedom to return to the driver’s seat. 

His comeback began in 2023, when he joined the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS), one of the world’s most demanding endurance championships. Just a year later, in August 2024, he became the first Indian to secure a podium finish at the Nürburgring, placing second in the VT2-F category. That was only the beginning—he went on to win his first NLS race in October 2024 and was eventually crowned Vice Champion in the VT2-F class at the season finale in November. 

In this candid interview, Gupta opens up about balancing entrepreneurship with racing, the mental and physical toll of staying in the game, and what it will take to make motorsport more accessible for Indian talent. 

In Conversation With Akshay Gupta 

Tell us your earliest memory of being fascinated with the auto world. What was your first proper introduction to motorsports? 

When I was a toddler, I’d wake up to the sound of my dad’s car every morning and wouldn’t stop crying until he put me in the passenger seat for a joyride. That routine continued every single day until I was about four years old. Around that time, my dad got me a go-kart, and I spent the next four to five years driving it around endlessly—until it completely broke down. 

It wasn’t until I was about 11 or 12 that I first saw a TV show on the World Rally Championship, and then later discovered Formula One on television. Up until then, I didn’t even know this could be a career. But from that point onward, I knew that this was all I wanted to do—I wanted to become a race car driver. 

Despite being born with clubfoot and undergoing multiple surgeries, you never felt discouraged from pursuing motorsports. Tell us what kept you going. 

Honestly, I was just naive about my own limitations in the beginning—and to an extent, I still am. Motorsport is probably the only professional-level sport I can realistically pursue, given my condition. That’s not to say it hasn’t been discouraging or challenging—it definitely has. But you’ve got to work with what you’ve got. 

I was too blinded by passion to acknowledge my limitations early on. That said, I believe that if you’re limited in one area, you’re often gifted in others. I’ve always had strong intellect and perseverance, which have helped me build and sell companies and endure a high level of physical pain. So, I just try to make the best of what I have. 

Can you tell us the story about how your dad got you a go-kart in 1996? How did it help accelerate your interest in competing in motorsports?  

I was always playing with toy cars, and my dad loved indulging me. One day, he just decided to buy me a go-kart. I must have been four years old. That was the start of everything. You can be someone who loves cars just by knowing they exist—but to truly love speed, you have to experience it. That go-kart became my window into the world of speed, and I got addicted. 

I used to drive it down the mountain roads of Rajasthan, trying to make it around a tricky corner. I’d crash into the ditch next to it almost every time. But one day, I finally made it through. A decade later, I discovered that what I had instinctively learned back then was called the racing line—the fastest way around a corner. 

When I transitioned into real karting 10 years later, I already had a sense of speed and hand-eye coordination. I just had to adapt it to higher speeds and better accuracy. My first proper championship was the Toyota Etios Motor Racing series. Before that, I only competed in one-off kart races and amateur events. 

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced as an aspiring driver in Ahmedabad, India in the 90s? 

There was no local karting track, and the nearest racetrack was about 1,700 km away. There was zero exposure to the sport, no role models to look up to. I get messages from kids today asking how to get started—but back then, I had no one to ask. 

As a young kid with a blossoming career in motorsports, how did you balance school work as well as training? Who were some of your biggest supporters at the time?  

I was an average student—nothing exceptional academically or in extracurriculars. No set routine, no workouts, no diet. Racing changed that. It gave me focus. I started waking up early, exercising, eating right, even meditating. 

My mom saw this transformation and thought, Why should I stop him from doing something that brings such positive change? She encouraged me even more. She was a strong believer in astrology—got me a stone to help with focus and prayed every time I got in the car. Her belief in me was my biggest support. 

Both your parents had full-time jobs, leading to you being able to live a life better than compared to most people in India and yet finding sponsors was a big part of your struggle as a driver. How difficult was this part to understand as a young child who grew up rather comfortably?  

We were comfortable—we had a decent home, a car, good food, education, and occasional trips. But motorsports is far beyond that. A middle-class family in Europe can fund karting for years. In India, even one season of national karting (about ₹12 lakhs) is out of reach for most. 

We were raised with the understanding not to ask for things we knew our parents couldn’t afford. My dad would always stretch his limits for our needs, but racing was another level. 

Still, I always had a voice inside me saying it would work out. That I’d find the money, get selected, and make it as a racer. And for seven years—I did. 

Take us through the process of how drivers find sponsors and how that plays a part in shaping the career of any racing driver? 

It’s essentially sales. You identify companies that could benefit from sponsoring your racing career, figure out how exactly they’ll benefit, and find the right decision-makers in those companies. 

Then you begin outreach—emails, LinkedIn, phone calls, introductions—anything to get a meeting. Each proposal is tailored. For example, one that caught attention was for a broadband company—motorsport is all about speed, just like their branding. 

Out of thousands of cold outreaches, you might get 60–70 meetings, 10–15 second meetings, and eventually 1–2 actual sponsors. Once they’re on board, you have to deliver value—more than just branding. Think engagement, rewards, experiential marketing. 

This whole exercise taught me how to sell. It shaped me as an entrepreneur. When I started my first business, I already had the basics of sales and marketing down. 

What was your first international competition in motorsports? Did you face any cultural or professional hurdles in terms of recognition and opportunities? 

My first international competition was the Nissan GT Academy Asia Finale—a pure talent hunt, broadcast globally and ranked as the second most-watched motorsport show in Europe. The competition was fierce. I was selected from a pool of 10,000 drivers and had a strong shot at winning the $1-million contract with Nissan. But, the year I became the India Winner for the competition, was the last year for it. It shut down in 2016. Nissan pulled the plug on their entire motorsport division after that and no one actually won anything from the Asia finale. It was a huge hurdle. This was, I believe, the peak of my performance in motorsport then and I had nothing left.  

Shortly after, I won the MRF Formula 1600 scholarship but couldn’t raise the additional budget needed to compete. There were a lot of hurdles, I still believe I was fortunate to receive the right opportunities at the right time to chase motorsport seriously.  

How difficult is it for Indian drivers to break into the international racing scene? According to you, where are they lacking as compared to drivers from other countries? 

Sheer ruthlessness, that’s the biggest difference. Indian culture emphasizes humility, which can sometimes be a barrier in highly competitive sports. Even when we do find drivers with the right attitude, it’s often not complemented by strategic thinking or emotional control. 

There’s a quote by Aristotle that really resonates: “He who is only an athlete is too crude, too vulgar, too much a savage. He who is a scholar only is too soft, too effeminate. The ideal citizen is the scholar-athlete, the man of thought and the man of action.” 

Racing demands a unique blend of technique, emotional discipline, and a relentless desire to win. That’s what defines generational talent. To uncover such talent in India, we need to give far more kids exposure to motorsports. It will happen gradually, especially as our GDP per capita rises. 

When you realised that you would have to raise the funds to fulfil your motorsport dreams, what were some tools you had to lean back on?  

Before building my company, I used to rely on my sales skills, LinkedIn outreach, creative marketing ideas and cold emails. In the process of building the company, I think I utilised absolutely every skill I have.  

Tell us about your first entrepreneurial venture? How did you come up with the idea and then make it happen? How much percentage of the funds needed were you able to raise? How did you strike a balance between handling work and training to race? 

I experimented with several ideas in the early days. In 2014, I co-founded a company making racing suits with another driver. In 2015, I tried to build a racetrack in my hometown. Then in 2016, I launched a VR business offering solutions to supercar dealerships. All of these failed. 

Eventually, in early 2017, I started my connected car venture, Scouto. The initial idea was to use telematics and ADAS to address road safety in India. Over time, we evolved it into a full-fledged consumer product that covered all aspects of car ownership. 

I raised all the capital I needed—first through a pre-seed round from friends and family, then through an incubator and a VC fund. My experience in pitching motorsport sponsors came in handy. 

By mid-2016, I’d stepped away from racing to focus fully on building the business. That said, I always stayed fit—just in case an opportunity came knocking. The real grind was in 2013 when I juggled racing in the national championship with Toyota in Chennai & Delhi, working as an automotive journalist in Pune, and appearing for my engineering exams in Ahmedabad. It was brutal. I had no social life. I was very clear on what I wanted in life. There’s this quote, “A healthy man wants many things, a sick man only wants one”. I just wanted to race cars.  

Tell us about your first time being on a podium after all this hardship? 

It was a tough one. I had built a company over 6 years, amassed a good amount of money to be able to afford racing cars and then when I got back to it, I had one setback after another. Some crashes in the national championship in 2022, a few bad races in Germany in 2023 and then discovering my hands required surgeries for some nerve damage. Then in April 2024, getting back into the race car after 6 months of rehab and breaking my ribs, having mechanical failures on the last lap while leading the race and then breaking my ribs again in May 2024 during the 5th race.  

After all of this insanity, I finally finished on the podium in the 6th race of the championship last year. I was so happy! It was like for some reason the podium was just trying to run away from me and the harder I ran towards it, the faster it got. Until it stopped. After what felt like 8 years of running behind it, falling over, almost giving up, breaking bones. That’s all the analogy I can give to emphasize on how it felt.  

What has been your most memorable race and which was the scariest crash? 

Last year in the 5th round of the championship, I had a crash at the opening lap where I was t-boned, spun and a car hit me head on. I immediately broke a rib. For the next few seconds, I could not breathe and those seconds seemed like never ending. I was frantically waving to the medical crew to come and assist me because I was not able to breathe. That was scary because for a second I thought I punctured the lung. But thankfully it was just one rib.  

My most memorable race has to be the one after my hand surgeries. The first race of 2024 in April. I was so happy. I could feel the car again. I was screaming on the radio after the first lap in joy. The car chief kept asking me if there’s something wrong and I just told him that I could feel the steering wheel again. That is the first time after 8 years of break that I felt one with the car again.  

What was it like driving at Nürburgring for the first time? What are some moves or corners that seemed impossible to conquer back then which you can now do with ease? 

I had done 10,000kms of practice on the simulator before driving on the circuit and none of that practice was helpful. You see, I have only raced on GP circuits before this and most of them did not have any significant elevation change. Nurburgring is more of a mountain course with almost no run-off area. You have 2 places where the car goes airborne and so many huge drops that it is just unbelievable. To adapt to it the first time was so overwhelming. When I did my first laps and came back in the pitlane, I just could not believe that a place like this exists. I sat down in awe for an hour in silence.  

In my first race, I had a crash during a morning practice session on the Pflantzgarten 2 corner. The rear tyres went in the air and landed on a wet patch. I immediately hit the barrier and at this part of the track you are doing 190kph. Thankfully nothing happened to me but the car was badly damaged, costing me 16,000 Euros to fix.  

That part of the track became very difficult for me to take flat out from that point on. When you land from the famous jump at Pflantzgarten 1, you are climbing uphill doing 150-155kph and there is a left hander with some bumps where you have to stay flat out until you drop down for Pflanzgarten 2, which is also flat out, by the time you come down, you are doing 200kph and have to take the Stefan Bellof S flatout. Bellof S too has a lot of bumps, you can always feel the right rear tyre in the air at 210kph taking that corner.  

After my crash, I was lifting off throughout this section. It took me 4 races to muster the courage to take this flat out entirely. Helped me gain 2 seconds in lap time. I never thought it was possible for a car to grip through that section like that but once I did it, it was an amazing feeling.  

Did you have a chance to meet any of your racing heroes? Who is your current favourite driver in the world of motorsports?  

My racing hero will be Ayrton Senna who I sadly cannot meet. My current favourite driver is Lewis Hamilton. For the human he is on and off the track. I have never met him though. Someday. 

Having said that, I have had the privilege to race against a lot of really known drivers from across the world in my championship last year. The Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie attracts a lot of world class racers. Sometimes directly in my class. Ex-F1 drivers, WEC drivers, LeMans winners, BTCC stars, WTCC world champion, World Karting Champion etc. So, it has been a privilege to have such a high level of competition.  

Motorsports is often considered a niche sport in India. How do you see the future of the industry in the country, and what changes would you like to see?  

I think we need to start by accepting that this will always be a rich man’s sport. It’s expensive because of the high-performance vehicles, highly skilled mechanics & engineers, high costs of spares & consumables and lastly the complex infrastructure.   

What I believe can make it more accessible is having a lot of rental karting tracks across India which are professionally run and have enough local competition. That’s much more accessible (<INR 1 lakh annually) vs a Rotax National Karting championship (begins at ~12 lakhs annually). I think Rayo Racing is doing a great job with that. We need more of them, maybe 100 such tracks in India. I say that they should be professionally run because I have seen so many karting tracks start and burn down because the tarmac was not taken care of or the karts kept breaking down. The owners eventually back out of such businesses when they don’t make financial sense but they don’t understand that it is their inability to run it the right way that leads to the losses.  

Another issue with Indian motorsport is its concentration in the south, whether due to infrastructure or other reasons. There is a growing interest in amateur level events in the North like Autocross, Trackdays and Drifting. That’s a beginning. But for it to become a national sport which is understood and followed by the masses, it has to reach more places. With more race tracks being built across Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, I think that will change. But at the end of the day, as India grows economically, more people will have the means to race. 

You were also the second Indian, alongside actor Ajith, to participate in the Dubai 24-hour Endurance race? Was that experience like? How different was it from what you were used to at Nurburgring? 

Night and day difference. Nurburgring has no run-off, it is a hill climb cum street circuit. Dubai is a classic GP circuit with long tarmac run off areas. You can make mistakes and get away with it, so finding the limit is easier and less punishing.  

However, the traffic is more difficult because you could have 3-4 GT3 cars on your tail at the same time coming from all sides vs Nurburgring where 2 GT3 cars side by side will take up the entire circuit space. So, that was a bit of a challenge. But overall, it was easier. The TCR car was easier to drive than the heavy production car I am used to (1075kg vs 1450kg). It had more grip (downforce vs mechanical grip) and more power.  

The teams competing in the NLS and 24-hour series are almost the same, even the drivers. You meet quite a lot of familiar faces in the paddock. But the 24-hour race was quite an experience due to the large number of Indian fans that were present due to Ajith. 

What’s next on the motorsports calendar for you? What are some of your long-term goals in motorsports and entrepreneurship? Where do you see yourself in the next 5–10 years? 

My immediate goal is to win the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) championship overall. My next goal will be to jump into a GT4 car and find suitable championships to win around the world. In the long run, I want to win at every major racetrack across the world. For the next 3-4 years, I will focus on Europe and then shift to the Americas and Asia.  

As for entrepreneurship, I want to create a large amount of quality employment for people in India. My goal is to employ more than a million people and give them good healthcare, good pay, good working conditions with health & safety and maybe even good education for their kids.  

Looking back on your journey, what are you most proud of, and what would you tell your younger self if you could go back in time? 

I think my perseverance is something I am the most proud of. Most racers I know have given up on their dream to race cars at some point and settled for daily life. I could never do that. I kept at it and will keep at it for as long as I am alive. If I were to meet my younger self I would just ask him to believe in himself more and trust the process, it will happen.  

What would you say to young Indian drivers who are dreaming of making it big in motorsports but feel that the odds are against them? 

It is very hard, I won’t lie. But nothing worth having comes easy. So grind it out. If you seriously do want to do this, if you are passionate about it, you will find a way to do it. Just keep at it. If you need more specific advice, you can always reach out to me at akshay@race4india.com