Pure Sport

Royal Enfield invited us to the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore to participate in a Media Race alongside the final races for the Continental GT Cup

- Azaman Chothia

THERE IS JUST SOMETHING ABOUT the atmosphere on a race weekend. This being the final race weekend of 2022, the energy levels in the Royal Enfield pit box were high as the battle for the top spot in the championship standings went down to the final race. Last year, I was given the opportunity to take part as a wildcard entry for one of the rounds of this championship. I had never ridden on the circuit before and, within just a few laps, I was already getting intimidated by the pace of the racers in the first unofficial practice session. Unfortunately, while trying to push and be faster, I lost the front end and ended up crashing out hard at the first corner, injuring my hand and bringing my weekend to a premature end. Since then, all I wanted to do was get back astride the GI-R6s50 and overcome the fear of that crash, so that I would be able to go back to riding on this circuit without having qualms.

I opted to take part in this media race so that I could get to ride the motorcycle with new upgrades and, mainly, sneak in some much-needed track-time. We headed to the track on Friday to get a glimpse of the professional racers in action which pumped us up for the practice and qualifying sessions that were scheduled for Saturday. We used the five extra motorcycles and were segregated into three batches, after which each batch got a chance to put in some laps within a 12-minute practice session, followed by a 10-minute qualifying session.