TVS Young Media Racer Round 1

TVS Young Media Racer Round 1

The Young Media Racer program was started by TVS in the year 2017

Back in the month of April, TVS invited a select group of media journalists to come and experience what it’s like to be a proper racer in India. What followed, was the first step into the experience, which was the thorough training we were put through about our basics. Fast forward two months, and it’s June now, and it’s the first round of the TVS Young Media Racer programme. As we all know, around the time of June is where the monsoon kicks in, and as the skies pour down on the tarmac every rider knows this isn’t the best scenario to go riding, let alone trying to put down fast track times. But that was just the first obstacle.

The second obstacle was located down South in a beautiful city called Coimbatore, where the land is vast and open and the skies are rampant with strong gusts of winds. Now, I had never been to Kari Motor Speedway, but I can never forget the first time I stepped foot there. The 2.1 km track was built and inaugurated in the year 2003 and was originally used as a runway for power-gliders as part of an Ultralight aviation manufacturing company owned by S. Karivardhan. In the 1990s, the stretch was used for drag racing events and later after its inauguration was built for Formula 3 race cars. So by now, you know that this track is no stranger to high speeds.

If you’ve ever seen the layout of Kari Motor Speedway, you’d know that unlike any other track in India, the corners come in pairs and I’m not talking long, sweeping corners, I mean the sharp and technical ones. The track consists of a total of 15 corners, nearly all in pairs. This speedway isn’t as large as some of India’s other famous tracks, but it sure is beautiful. Surrounded by greenery, mountains, windmills, and even sometimes a peacock or two, the Kari Motor Speedway stands apart from the usual track view of racers and their machines. However, our group of racers wasn’t the only one racing at Kari Motor Speedway. It was around that time that the TVS MMSC One Make Championship took place at the speedway, along with a host of categories including both male and female racers.

My first time riding on this track took place on a Saturday afternoon when we were welcomed by light showers and the sound of loud exhausts. This was our practice session for before the real race. All us racers had our hopes up, and I especially was looking forward to putting down some fast lap times. This time, however, our bikes were different, well not entirely, as these were the same TVS Apache 200’s but these were equipped with the bikemaker’s own A-RT System (Anti-Reverse Torque), which in layman terms is a slipper clutch, one that would be of great assistance in the damp conditions we had to ride in. By the time it was our turn to ride and our engines were all warmed up, the rains started to pour down on us.