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On the right track
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Armaan Ebrahim is fast emerging as a force to reckon with in the Formula BMW Championship
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SPEEDING TO SUCCESS: Armaan Ebrahim PHOTO: K. V. Srinivasan
In a world dominated by Narain Karthikeyans, Armaan Ebrahim is worth keeping a tab on. He has embarked on a journey and wants to go a step further than his dad and mentor, Akbar Ebrahim.
Now Armaan is simultaneously taking part in the seven-round Formula BMW Championship and the four-round Asian Zone Karting Championship. Thanks to perfect planning, he doesn't have to skip even a single round in either championship.
About his initiation into motor sport, he says neither did anyone shoehorn him into a cockpit nor shovel him onto a race car. He took up go-karting on his own, when he was four. However, Armaan had to stop driving for a while.
But he re-acquainted himself with go-karting when he was 13; this time, he was more serious. He joined the Rotax training school in Bangalore, and came under the Malaysian coach Wei Leong. He won the final race after training and soon was handpicked by Leong to compete in the Asian Zone Championship in Malaysia. He won a race and visited the podium on two more occasions.
It must be said here that Akbar was the one behind Narain during the Coimbatorean's formative years in motor racing. It was apparent that Akbar had learnt the trappings of the motor sport world. He put his son in the newly launched Formula LGB in 2004, and also in the Rotax Karting National Championship. Armaan got into the groove right away and won the street race in Kolkata in the LGB class.
Armaan, who is 16 now, provided enough pointers in 2004 that gave Akbar the confidence to move up the ladder. Given the natural path that other drivers took, Formula BMW Asia was the ideal destination.
As Armaan says, "A season of Formula BMW will cost anywhere between Rs. 80 and Rs. 85 lakhs." Sponsorship could have become a stumbling block. Luckily, Armaan bagged a BMW scholarship.
He had to compete with 40 other drivers to bag the scholarship, and if you added JK Tyres' patronage, Akbar was spared of those sleepless nights, thinking about sponsors.
Armaan's first race in the Formula BMW Championship was in Bahrain. The championship was run as a support event to the Formula One race where Narain was in the F-1 cluster. Narain donned the role of an experienced driver and visited Armaan's pits four times.
In his first race, Armaan was keen on getting acclimatised to the car and the circuit. He finished fifth and fourth in the two races.
However, Armaan proved that he would be a force to reckon with, with his impressive performance in the second round of the championship in Sepang.
He stormed to victory in the second race after finishing fourth in the first. That he was the first rookie to achieve this honour vindicates Akbar's choice to put Armaan in Formula BMW.
"This is my first win abroad in Formula BMW," says Armaan. "It sounds good to be the first rookie to do that. But during the race I never thought about it. I just put my head down and focussed on keeping it nice and steady."
Unlike Narain Karthikeyan, Armaan is not a torchbearer for India. There are five Indians, including Armaan taking part in the championship. And it gives him a yardstick to measure up along other Indians.
Armaan's future depends on how well he performs in his maiden season in the Formula BMW. However, Akbar is clear about his son's priorities. He is eyeing either the British F-3, which has been a stepping-stone for many F-1 drivers, or the ultra-competitive Formula BMW U.K. Championship. Come September, Armaan's career graph could very well be plotted.
G. VENKAT GANESHAN
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