Karthikeyan does well to finish 6th

Narain Karthikeyan in his Kolles Audi at the Le Mans Series race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium on Sunday

Mumbai: Narain Karthikeyan added another feather to his cap this weekend when he became the first Indian to race in the Le Mans Series.

‘The Fastest Indian on Wheels’ finished a creditable sixth in his first ever LMS race while driving for the Kolles Audi team in the second round of the 2009 championship held at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

The 31-year-old Narain shared driving duties with two other drivers, Briton Andrew Meyrick & Dutchman Charles Zwolsman in the 1,000 km Endurance race.

The Chennai racer drove during qualifying Saturday and made the grid at ninth, ahead of the team’s second car driven by Christian Albers.

As per championship regulations, the qualifying driver can either start the race or finish it, and Narain chose to do the latter, thus doing the third & final stint during Sunday’s race.

“It was a phenomenal experience for me to race in the LMS. The car is extremely technical, very challenging to drive and race strategies are of crucial importance. There are 50 cars racing on the track at the same time, in four different classes of cars,” Narain, the only Indian to have driven in Formula One so far, said in a news release.