GONE RACING

Getting out of testing shoes and into nomex meant re-configuring my brain, but that's exactly what transpired at the most exciting grassroots GT series in the country

- DIPAYAN DUTTA

Lights out, and for a split-second, everything else fades—the start-line tension, the blur of red tail-lights, the ear-splitting bark of engines echoing off the grandstand. I'm nestled in the cockpit, sixth on the grid, heart hammering, knuckles white on the wheel of a race car that looks tame until you try to tame it. At that moment, grid position didn't feel like it belonged just to me: it belonged to every novice, every pro, every underdog who'd ever dreamed of slipping into the cockpit and getting sideways in anger. Because the Levitas Cup isn't just another weekend of hot laps—it is one of India's only one-make grass-roots series, where professional racers and novices share the grid, push the same cars, and bludgeon their way through the same carnage. Opportunity and risk in equal measure.

It is an unforgiving equaliser, the crucible of motorsport and it's been a long time since a series has felt this raw. There's something refreshingly honest about a grid full of identical cars and mismatched experience levels. The veterans bring precision; the rookies bring bravery. And somewhere between the two, you find the essence of motorsport—instinct, emotion, and the eternal dance between grip and greed. In a one-make field, you can't buy speed. Your craft, your nerve, your mistakes—they are the only variables. That's what levels the playing field and, simultaneously, raises the stakes to a brutal, unforgiving height.