A seventh team has bought into India’s Supercross league, BigRock Motorsports is chasing a title no rival has come close to, and Season 3’s host cities are still a mystery.
India’s only stadium Supercross league has locked its Season 3 calendar: racing starts December 19, 2026, not this October as one earlier preview had suggested, and a seventh team, backed by Pune business group Punit Balan Group (PBG), has just bought into a league that still hasn’t named a single 2026 venue.
When Does ISRL Season 3 Actually Start
The Indian Supercross Racing League (ISRL), run jointly with the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI), confirmed a three-round calendar on September 26: Round 1 on December 19 and 20, 2026, Round 2 on January 23 and 24, 2027, and Round 3 on February 6 and 7, 2027. An earlier Autocar India report from July had described the season as running “October to December 2026,” which was accurate to the provisional plan at the time but has since been superseded by this official calendar. Host cities have not been announced; ISRL has previously shortlisted Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi and Mumbai, but none of those is confirmed yet.
Who Is PBG Racing, and Why Pune Keeps Showing Up
Punit Balan Group, a Pune conglomerate that already owns teams across cricket, chess, tennis, handball, table tennis, kho kho and arm wrestling, is entering motorsport for the first time with PBG Racing, the seventh team on the ISRL grid. It joins a league where Pune money already runs deep, a Panchshil Realty-backed franchise has raced since the 2024 opening season, which was itself held in Pune, even though the city has no permanent racetrack of its own.
Can Anyone Stop BigRock Motorsports From a Three-Peat
BigRock Motorsports, fronted by CS Santosh, the first Indian rider to finish the Dakar Rally, has won both ISRL titles so far: Season 1 in 2024 and Season 2 in 2025. No other team has won either season, so Season 3 is less a six-way (now seven-way) contest than a question of whether anyone has closed the gap. Season 2’s grand finale in Calicut drew more than 32,000 spectators, a figure ISRL and reporting from The Bridge both describe as the highest attendance ever recorded for a motorsport event in India, and actor Salman Khan, the league’s Season 2 brand ambassador, attended Round 2 in Hyderabad in person.
| Season | Champion | Headline Number | Streaming Partner |
| Season 1 (2024) | BigRock Motorsports | Inaugural season, launched in Pune | JioCinema and Sports18 (Viacom18) |
| Season 2 (2025) | BigRock Motorsports (2nd title) | 32,000+ at the Calicut finale, a national record | FanCode |
| Season 3 (2026-27) | Defending: BigRock, chasing a 3rd title | 7 teams, 1 new entrant (PBG Racing), venues TBC | Not announced yet |
This Is Not the Indian Racing League, Even Though Both Launch This Month
It is easy to confuse ISRL with the Indian Racing League, which The Spec’d covered separately and which opens its own season at the Madras International Circuit on October 24. IRL is single-seater car racing on tarmac, owned by Bollywood and cricket celebrities. ISRL is dirt bikes, jumps and a stadium-built track, and its owners skew toward Pune real estate and business groups instead. The two leagues share almost nothing beyond launching in the same window and both using a franchise structure.
How the Rider Auction Works, and Who Is in the Pool
Unlike IPL-style cricket auctions, where entire careers get bought in minutes, ISRL franchises assemble their rosters from a confirmed pool of international and Indian riders before each season. For Season 3, Autocar India reported that the pool includes Jordie Tixier, the 2014 MX2 world champion, and Anthony Bourdon, a French Supercross specialist, racing across the SX1 (450cc, international-only), SX2 (250cc international) and SX3 (250cc India-Asia) categories. A new Indian Futures category has also been added this season, aimed specifically at developing domestic riders rather than importing foreign ones, and bikes across the grid come from Honda, Yamaha, KTM and Kawasaki factory-spec machines, the same four brands that sell their road-going sports bikes in India to the fans watching from the stands.
What We Don’t Know Yet
Three things are genuinely unconfirmed: host cities for all three rounds, the Season 3 broadcast partner now that the FanCode deal covered only Season 2, and ticket pricing. Anyone planning a December trip around Round 1 should wait for ISRL’s venue announcement rather than book around the shortlisted cities, since none of Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi or Mumbai is locked in.
Two seasons in, ISRL has an attendance record, a title defence nobody has come close to breaking, and a Pune business group writing a cheque for a sport the city doesn’t even have a permanent track for. The one thing it still can’t tell you is where to turn up in December.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the next Indian Supercross Racing League race?
Round 1 of ISRL Season 3 is scheduled for December 19 and 20, 2026, with Round 2 on January 23 and 24, 2027, and Round 3 on February 6 and 7, 2027. The host city for Round 1 has not been confirmed yet.
Is ISRL the same as the Indian Racing League?
No. ISRL is a two-wheeler Supercross series held on dirt tracks built inside stadiums, while the Indian Racing League runs open-wheel single-seater cars on a real circuit, the Madras International Circuit in Chennai. They are separate leagues that happen to launch in the same window.
Who are the defending ISRL champions?
BigRock Motorsports, led by Dakar veteran CS Santosh, has won both completed ISRL seasons, in 2024 and 2025, and goes into Season 3 chasing an unprecedented third straight title.
