The TVS Young Media Racer Championship is a yearly competition where "young" automobile journalists from across India participate in three to four motorcycle races at various locations in a span of four to five months.
It was back in March 2019, when I qualified for these races (barely) and since then have been on a journey of improvement, skill development and intense competition.
My mother isn’t a big fan of motor sport and neither did she like the idea of me riding a motorcycle a race track. Her concern was legitimate. But, when have we ever listened to our mothers?
I was off to the races!
Disclaimer: Motor Sport Activities are inherently dangerous recreational activities and there is significant risk of injury, disability or death. If you do not wish to be exposed to such risks, then you should not participate in Motor Sport Activities.
Video Log:
Race starts 13:30
Rider Crash 15:30
Race Ends 25:20
Race 1: ‘Kari-ed’ Myself Well
The first leg of the race was at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore which is a 2.1 kilometre racetrack and we were given 8 laps to compete. The bikes we were riding were race-spec TVS Apache RTR 200s.
Talking to my fellow competitors I learned that I was competing against experienced riders on the grid. These were automobile journalists who had been riding for a far longer time than I and had received training in some form or the other.
Putting all that I had learned in the training session, I clocked a best time of 1:31:536 in the qualification round to earn myself the 8th position on the grid. This, after I did horribly during practice to finish with a time of 1:38:916, 11th out of 12 riders.
Race day had finally come and I was all set to better my qualification time. On straights it was a struggle against much lighter competitors, but I compensated the same on some challenging turns.
In the end, I crossed the checkered flag in the 8th position out of 12 racers with a best lap time of 1:31:156, marginally better than my qualification time.
Kari was a challenging battleground. Short yet exhilarating. Next up was the MMRT (Madras Motor Race Track) in Chennai for the second round of the races.
Race 2: Choked in the Chennai Heat
This was my second visit to the MMRT in Chennai after the training I received back in March 2019. It was a surprise for me that I had even managed to qualify for the races after registering a qualifying time of 2:54:590. I was the last journalist to qualify.
Like typical race weekends, Saturday at MMRT hosted the practice and qualification rounds while the race was on Sunday morning.
I was backing myself to better my horrendous performance during the training period. Turns out, I was still battling some of the demons on the MMRT.
During practice I languished at the bottom of the table on the 12th position after clocking 2:42:458. I was a bit circumspect while riding and was focusing more on marking my braking positions rather than going fast.
I did pull up my socks and bettered by practice time by shaving off almost 10 seconds to qualify 10th on the grid.
I did manage to register a best lap time of 2:39:939 which wasn’t enough to get me a good position on the grid. Turns out other riders too had upped their game to register better times than practice.
Honest confession. The 5-lap second race of the TVS Young Media Racer Program was a disaster for me. Not only did I underperform, I made some very silly mistakes on the track in order to compensate for a bad start.
Starting 10th already wasn’t easy and I managed to screw up my start.
During take off, while switching from 2nd to 3rd gear, I failed to put adequate amount of force on the gear pedal to shift to third which is why while going hard on the throttle, my throttle conked and went back to 2nd.
I decelerated and lost my position to the two riders behind me.
I did manage to recover one position but that was it. I made a lot errors and even went off the track on one occasion. There was no catching up after that as the other riders were not only faster, but were maneuvering corners with ease.
I managed to finish the race where I had started (at 10th), only because the rider leading the race at a point crashed badly and could never recover. You can watch the video of the crash at the beginning of the story.
I felt five laps were just too less to test the endurance of the riders. However, it was a good experience nonetheless.
Next Up?
The next leg of the young media race is expected to kick-off in October and in all probability is going to be at the Buddh International Circuit.
I have had some riding experience at the Buddh with the 2020 BMW S1000RR and the recently launched Suzuki Gixxer series, so hopefully I can translate the same into a better performance than MMRT.
This experience is definitely a learning curve for me. Every race offers something new to learn. Yes, I am making mistakes, but I am learning from them as well. I am sure that this we help improve my riding style overall as I feel I am a much improved rider than before.
Plus, now even my mom’s okay with me racing.
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