Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
First step to big time
|
Kerala is a rally country all right but no big racing yet. Kartik Shankar has given the State a good reason to get hot about racing, says STAN RAYAN
|
BIG MOVES Kartik Shankar is getting noticed
Everybody loves a winner. Very few remember or are keen to talk about the silver medallist, the runner-up.
Ask racing driver Kartik Shankar. And the pain of being the second-best comes welling up.
"It's tough to approach sponsors when you don't win races. And reporters often hang up on you," said the 19-year-old during the recent Kerala Autocross at Nedumbassery. Kartik is yet to win races in the national circuit but now even Formula One star Narain Karthikeyan is talking about him.
"He has good driving skills. Definitely a good bet for the future, he just needs some more experience," said Narain who conducted trials recently to pick talented young drivers for his new racing team.
Kartik did not get into the four-member team hand-picked by Narain in Coimbatore but the Delhi driver was one of the two reserves. And he will be driving in the Formula Swift class, which will make its debut at the JK Tyre National Championship in Coimbatore in August. And he is thrilled about it.
"It's a miracle that I got in because I was driving those cars (Formula LGB) for the first time during the trials," said Kartik who was born in Thiruvananthapuram. True, the odds were piled against Kartik during Narain's trials.
"Delhi, like the rest of North India and his home State Kerala, is more into rallying. And since we don't have a racing track, my only training is whenever I come down to Chennai for championships, a day before the races," said Kartik, the only son of Sathy Shankar, a Unicef programmer based in Delhi, and Jayashree.
He had raced on the Kari Motor Speedway, the trials venue, once only before, while the others were regulars there and enjoyed a `home' advantage.
"But I knew I would be strong. I adapt to new tracks quickly," said Kartik who finished runner-up in the sixth leg of the JK Tyre National Championship in Chennai last year. The youngster has raced more in Chennai but he likes the Coimbatore track better.
"Chennai is a flowing track but Coimbatore is more technical, there is a lot of scope for hard braking and it's more exciting. It's quite fast too."
And what was Narain's advice to him?
"He did point out a few mistakes. I was power shifting from second to third gear often, Narain told me not to do that," said Kartik.
A secret
The twelve drivers who were called for the trials went all out. "We were not allowed to take stop watches or mobiles, lap timings were not shown and no one knew what the other was doing. Everything was a secret, so we pushed ourselves really hard."
In the end, he was all smiles. "Since Narain was the lone selector, I knew only my talent and driving skills would matter," said Kartik.
Kartik has played cricket and basketball as a little boy and he took to motorsport after joining a racing school in Ahmedabad five years ago. He was soon competing in karting Nationals and in 2003, he got a proposal to drive for Malaysia's City Karting Team in the Dunlop Endurance Championship there. Since it was a crucial year in his academic career, he chose to stay back. JK Tyre picked him near the end of the 2004 season and he did the full season for them last year.
He now plans to try out some big moves. Topping his list is to do the Formula BMW Asia scholarship test early next year. "The top four drivers get a $50,000 scholarship which will cover around one third of your expenses in the circuit."
And with JK Tyre, Valvoline, Pete's, Bharat Petroleum and Amaron backing him, he feels he can now concentrate more fully on his racing career.
And how much has his life changed after the new developments. "Now, people know me.
My parents have always been very supportive but there were many who doubted my talent. All that has changed." And of course, nobody is hanging up on him.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
