SPEED FEST

The track day culture is booming, as we found out on the Winter Edition of The Speedfest

- AATISH MISHRA

IT’S A CHILLY WINTER MORNING AT THE Buddh International Circuit. The jackets are out, hands are stuffed into pockets and a sense of anticipation hangs heavy in the air as we wait for the gates to open. Beyond those gates lies India’s finest stretch of tarmac — 5.12km of blacktop that twists, turns, rises, falls and, more than anything else, excites. Hallowed grounds, where the likes of Michael Schumacher, Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton raced less than 10 years ago. Beyond those gates also lay a collection of India’s finest sports cars. Top-shelf metal — many tuned and fettled with top-shelf components — sitting pretty in the pits. And all that sitting around would last only as long as it would take us to get from gate to pits. This was after all, The Speedfest Track Day Winter Edition. All hell was about to break loose.

If you’ve been following evo India for a while, you will be familiar with The Speedfest. A bunch of hardcore enthusiasts that that have a collection of cars that would have left a 16-year-old me with a mess in my pants. We featured their collection of GT Porsches, their 911 Turbos and they even lent us an X7 for a comparison test. “Speedfest is nothing more than a group of enthusiasts who love to drive, coming to the track and spending two days of pure bliss and fun on the tarmac, trying to get the best out of their cars and the best out of themselves,” says Sahil Contractor, one of the members of Speedfest who we’ve gotten to know over the last few months. He was here with his BMW M3, appropriately tuned in the pursuit of a hot lap time.