Going Long

We head down to the Kari Motor SpeedWay to gorace MotorcycleS, but it isnt as simple as you think

- Aatish Mishra

TG GOES RACING

I was completely kitted out – leathers, helmet, et al – but was without a motorcycle. Instead, I was marinating in my own sweat under the hot Coimbatore sun in the pitlane of the Kari Motor Speedway. My motorcycle was out on track putting in lap after lap and I was twiddling my thumbs, waiting for my turn to get back on to the bike. I had already sent word to the pitwall, asking them to signal my teammate to come in and swap places with me. Little did I know that this would cost us our position and eventually, a spot to be on the podium.

Despite what my colleagues in the office think happened, we didn’t lose the race because I was slow. Bad strategy is what cost us this one. For the first time, going full gas and attacking every corner like it was your last wasn’t going to win you the race. You had to strategise, come up with an effective plan, and then execute the plan flawlessly. This wasn’t an eight-lap sprint race like we were accustomed to, but an endurance race. It was uncharted territory.

A little bit of background – the guys over at Suzuki wanted to have us over to experience their race-spec Gixxer SF bikes – the same ones used in the Gixxer Cup. But instead of a vanilla trackday or a plain-old media race, they wanted to do something different. Which is why they came up with the idea of an endurance race. They were pretty confident about their bike lasting the thrashing on a racetrack for an extended period of time. They wanted to see if we could keep up. It was a simple formula — one hour, a bunch of terribly unfit motoring journalists and the 2.1km-long Kari Motor Speedway. Whoever finished the most number of laps would win.