TVS Racing Young Media Racer Program – Track Training

TVS Racing Young Media Racer Program – Track Training

TVS is the third largest two-wheeler manufacturer in India

TVS is one of India’s leading manufacturers when it comes to making motorcycles. The TVS Apache is quite a popular name especially when you remember all the racing DNA they talk about. Where does all this DNA come from? Well TVS has had 35 years of racing experience, starting all the way back from mopeds. Yes, that’s right, back in 1982 a TVS Group company named Sundaram Clayton raced it’s 50cc moped, clocking an impressive 105 km/hr. This sparked the fire that we now all know as TVS Racing. The spark was first ignited in the year 1987 when it came into existence and won the Great Himalayan Desert Rally with an AX 100 the following year.

After the development of 5-speed gearboxes in 1990 and a few more rally iterations, TVS started scheme bike racing in India during the year 1993. 1994 to me is probably the big bang for motorcyclists in India as TVS was the first to launch One Make racing in our country. Hop forward to the year 2000 and the 4-Stroke era began. TVS kept going as they won more Rally, supercross, and Road Racing titles. It’s seven years from now that the racing DNA was first introduced to us with the RTR series being launched. Taking this DNA and legacy forward, TVS steps into Dakar, becoming the first Indian factory team to participate.

Conquering almost every championship in their way with an unbeatable win rate, Dakar was finally conquered too, being the first but surely not the last Indian to do so. The reason I gave you this quick walk down memory lane is that literally, no other Indian manufacturer has such a rich racing heritage. As a rider, I knew I was going to the right place to sharpen and polish my skills. Let’s not forget the pride it brings me to see TVS take our country forward. Now TVS had no way to share this experience with us up until the introduction of the Young Media Racer program.

The Young Media Racer program is TVS’ way of unraveling everything that a racer must go through. As a member of the program, you’re trained, taught and educated about racing just like any other racer. No quarter is spared when it comes to getting down and dirty on the track! We were welcomed by Chennai’s hot and humid weather, where the clouds were ambiguous and so was the weather. It went from cloudy to sunny faster than I went around the track, I guess that’s saying something. The track was all empty once we got there and it was just us and the TVS racing team members. We headed straight for class and began with our introductions and safety briefing.

Our instructor was Harry Sylvester who’s an extremely seasoned, national level champion who kept his emphasis on safety and basics. From the very beginning, he made it clear that our basics would lay the foundation for whatever skills we’re planning to sharpen or take back home from the track. Safety on the other hand, well I don’t need to tell you why that’s important but to help understand TVS gave us sheets with a map of the track and multiple safety flags used by the marshals on the track.

Once the safety instructions were given, we headed to the pit. TVS had provided all of us with race suits and complete riding gear. Once in our leathers we headed out and met our machines and our trainer Jagan Kumar who is also an extremely seasoned, national level rider who was there to help us with our track time. We were given Track spec TVS Apache 200’s. The weather was so hot, we were sweating simply while jumping into our leathers! The only relief we had from the heat was each time we headed to the classroom or on the track. So you can imagine what were the two places we tried to spend most of our time.

The basics are an extremely vital part of our training and it goes to show

For the first half, we focused on our body posture and following the line, the racing line of course. We all had individual laps with our trainers and it was quite helpful to ride right behind them, observe and learn. With each lap, there was this itch to wanna let loose and whack open the throttle, but learn control and you’ve mastered the first step to taming speed. As we rode and the fast wind swept across the track, I could see everyone slowly finding their rhythm on the track and make themselves at home.

We pull back in after about 10 laps each and boy, we’ve got a lot to learn. We head to the class where everyone starts hurling doubts and questions towards Harry, who answers all of them in a calm and enthusiastic manner. Having our doubts cleared, our next lesson is on throttle and braking. Braking being the emphasis here as most of the riders are used to braking in street riding conditions, they’ve never truly unlocked the true braking potential each machine holds. Something to look forward to as we head back to the track and do a few more laps focusing on both these aspects.

Believe it or not but to fine tune our throttle game, Harry suggested that we do our laps without using our brakes at all, instead, we use our throttle and engine to modulate our momentum. Seems tricky at first but once you start putting it to practice, it really does help as you realize the amount of control you can exercise through merely the throttle, which in turn leaves a lot of room for braking (if you find the need to use it).

Race starts are one of the most vital lessons worth mastering

Another stint back to the class and though everyone is exhausted, our spirits are still high and mighty. The next lesson for us is race starts and the use of front brakes. I cannot tell you how important this lesson is to me as launches have been my weak spot. The start is one of the most vital parts of a race, it’s the place where all the riders are gathered together and a very crucial place for overtakes to be made. You can cover up so many positions merely by landing your launch.

We were given 3 launches each and right at the end of each launch, we were told to slow down but by trying to only use the front brake. Most people avoid applying more of the front brake but this test really helped how important the front brakes are on the track. The biggest challenge while launching a bike is not overdoing it. If your launch is too lazy, you might as well move aside because you’re going to lose a lot of speed and time. If your launch isn’t well-calculated, you could end up pointing to the sky and falling. I don’t know which one is worse but if you find that sweet spot, you can shoot down the start like a bullet with zero disregard for wind. I mean it really goes.

We head back to our beloved air conditioned classroom and go over all of our errors and room for improvement. Everyone seemed pretty up to speed with all their shortcomings and were eager to go out and work on them. Which is exactly what TVS let us do, they gave us the next lesson as free time on the track, unshackled, untamed and unleashed out on the track to put whatever we’ve learned to use.

This was honestly my favorite part of our session. When you’re left with all the knowledge with nothing but your own guiding voice inside your head telling you what to and what not to do. You feel yourself pushing further than you do, you can hear yourself calming and instructing yourself. Once we were done with our final laps, I could feel the improvement myself. The pure rush of adrenaline, the nervousness, the doubt and that sense of achievement, I guess all of this put together is the best way to define thrill. This has been a wonderful experience and I only wish it is shared with more people. Thank you TVS for letting us in on such a beautiful experience and taking our country’s name forward in motorsports.