By : RACHNA TYAGI
THANE :
At the Raymond race track in Thane, the air is filled with the smell of fuel, oil, and leather, and young motorcycle riders with their helmets are busy surveying the race track as well as sizing up the motorcycles that they’re going to be riding shortly to compete in the KTM Cup Season 2. This is the third round of the event and while the first round happened in Coimbatore and the second round in Delhi, the fourth round is scheduled to happen in Kolkata. The finals will take place in Coimbatore by the end of next month.
Jebaraj Emmanuel, Team Owner, Gusto Racing India, who has been associated with KTM for over a decade tells us that the top, ready to race motorcycles from KTM, the RC 390 Moto GP Edition, have been brought down for the races. They get a quick shifter, traction control, anti-lock and a lot of other features which that are meant for racing but can be used while riding on our roads as well. Pointing towards the motorcycles, he says, “These 20 motorcycles have been given by KTM and they also provide riding boots, proper leather gear as well as mesh jackets for circuits like this where the speed is not very high.”
In order to encourage youngsters to practice safe riding techniques while on the road, Emmanuel says “We ask them to come with their own ‘D’ ring helmet and gloves, we provide everything else. We insist that they buy their own helmet and gloves so that they can use it while riding their motorcycles daily. On the safety aspect, we’re trying to enforce this silently. That is the main idea behind this.”
About the preparedness for the Mumbai event, Emmanuel says, "Motorcycles are ready to race, tyres are good, Ceat is supporting us with the tyres, Castrol is supporting us with Power One oil, which is meant for these motorcycles. Everything is going well."
This year KTM has introduced a new category – ‘Women’ and Emmanuel says that the response has been “really good.” He says “Women… we really want to encourage, also KTM has a lot of women customers, so we don’t want to leave them out.” From around a dozen entries in Coimbatore to eight - nine in Delhi, and around 12-15 registrations in Mumbai, the response is good and we have seen that talent is also there. In Coimbatore and Delhi, we saw some girls really challenging the boys, so they’re equally good. We hope that women also win and that somebody gets a chance to go to Austria. It’s going to be challenging and very competitive.”
About the track at Raymond, Emmanuel says that it has been designed in a way to help racers improve their riding techniques, “especially more left to right and right to left changes.” He goes on to say that “it is not about speed, but about technique and balance on the motorcycle that the riders can apply.” From how to balance the motorcycle to how to lean the motorcycle to the seating position, Emmanuel says that riders are taught everything on the track. He goes on to say that “the track has been temporarily designed and it can change, however, this time around the track will remain the same for the next three days.”
Here's wishing the riders the very best, the top 15 of which, from the next three days, will be going on to compete at the finals in Coimbatore.
