The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : A racing car expert and technocrat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 30, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

A racing car expert and technocrat

Photo: K. Ananthan

Sanjay Sharma

From driving, he shifted gears to navigating. He later steered clear of it and tried his hands on tuning and then, slowly, fine-tuned himself into a successful promoter, a role he plays till date. Meet Sanjay Sharma, popularly known as ‘Hardy' by his peers in the motor sport arena. A racing car expert and a technocrat, Sanjay has played a key role in India's climb to the international motor sport ladder. Those who have followed him closely over the years will vouch for this.

Mr. Sharma single-handedly established a step-by-step platform to hone the skills of young racers in India. And, under his supervision, the JK Tyre national racing championship, which he started in 1997, produced class drivers in Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok, Armaan Ebrahim, Parthiv Sureshwaran and another talented bunch in Ashwin Sundar and Aditya Patel, who have all made their presence felt in international circuits.

If Mr. Sharma goes about crazily doing the promotional exercise for the sport in India, it is because he loves it so much. “I was one of those lucky guys to play my hands on a car at a very young age but I must thank my stars that I got the breaks at the right time,” he tells Rayan Rozario. Mr. Sharma, who heads the motor sport division of the JK Tyre Industries and is also General Manager (Corporate Communications) of the company, got the chance to rally as an 18-year-old. “In 1985, I was one of those young kids who came fully sponsored in the Charminar Challenge in Hyderabad, where I made my debut. My maiden outing, in a Maruti 800, ended on a merry note. I finished third in class clubbed with Gypsy's,” says Mr. Sharma, an active advisor to FMSCI, motor sport's national federation.

He was hugely successful as a navigator than a driver. “It was Tutu Dhawan, a popular face in the Himalayan circuit who inspired me all the way. He was the guy who taught me the nuances and exposed me to the technical side of the sport. He showed me the path and consolidated my mission. It was then I decided to put my heart and soul into navigating. And, all my international endeavours were as a navigator,” says Mr. Sharma, a member of the Sports Steering Committee of FICCI.

Sanjay was good at planning, and had the brain and the resources. “It was here that Tutu channelled my strengths and taught me to make optimum use of them,” he says.

Today, he is a contented man as his hobby turned out to be his profession. “I must consider myself lucky in this regard as I come from a family with relatively no motor sport background. My father was a Government servant,” he adds.

Sanjay cracked the basic things in life without much ado. “I had my own strengths such as walking up to people, never getting worked up and working 24x7,” he says.

He always knew the sport is for the elite. So, he worked hard on it and brought the sport to a level which suited the common man. “We created the road for the common man and made it feasible for the drivers.”

He says rallying is neither viewer nor media-friendly. “Racing is. It is stadium sports. I was always impressed with racing. I was among the first to bring go-karting to India. This was my point of accessibility but, to be frank, I could not get the race track.”

Sanjay says the country is fast becoming an automobile hub. “We have the NATRiP project in the pipeline. It is a Rs. 28,000-crore project. I am involved with the people at the helm because of our common interest in BAJA events. Also, the F-1 race and its track in Noida are going to bring about a revolutionary change to the sport. There is another track in Pune on the cards.”

“F1 is a fantastic business model. It brings in many things to India such as tourism, technology, research and development. In the UK, there are 17 race tracks. They supplement each other. But be assured the sport in India is in for a big change in 2011.”

He says working with the top-line will automatically benefit the bottom segment.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News Update

Stories in this Section