Feels Like Graduation

The third and final round of the TVS Young Media Racer Programme (YMRP) saw us take P2 in the race and P3 in the overall championship. Here is how it went off

- Charan Karthik

SO FAR AS DRAMA IS CONCERNED, THE final round of the TVS YMRP takes the cake. On race day, with less than five minutes to go for the formation lap, my bike was being dismantled and put together following its failure to fire up due to an electrical issue.

I waited patiently as four technicians craned their necks and tried to help each other put together the Apache RTR 200 race bike.

As a teenager, I used to compete in a number of bicycle races and was used to suffering punctures during the final moments before a race start. So, I was used to adrenaline-pumping last-minute scenarios presenting themselves and this didn't shake me much since I had all the support from the TVS team to fix the bike.

Once the bike was put together and ready to go, I swung a leg over it and got on to the track. I was the last racer to line up on the grid, slotting in P5 where I had qualified. The previous day, in Practice, I had finished with the third fastest time and in Qualifying I could only manage the fifth fastest time to my disappointment. Although I felt comfortable on the bike and felt fast, the competitors were faster than me.