Switching Gears

Pivoting from the racetrack to the command centre of motor sport with Gautam Singhania

- Arun Janardhan

Standing amid a riot of colours, symbols of decadence, works of art – all of them powerful, glamorous and million-dollar cars – Gautam Singhania seems a bit tired. It’s not surprising; putting together The Super Car Show with vintage and classic vehicles, bikes and buggies, new and old, shiny and shaky, is hard work. Even if the chairman and managing director of Raymond Ltd has been doing this for a decade, the sheer volume of logistics appears exhausting.

At the MMRDA Grounds in Mumbai’s BandraKurla Complex, where The Super Car Show was held in early February, a fiercely air-conditioned tent in the middle of the field stands out as a place of refuge from the sharp afternoon sun. Surrounded by cars, both inside and outside the tent, this is where Singhania hangs out with Graham Stoker, Deputy President for Sport of the Fédération Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA).

Around us are an orange Chevrolet, a red Lamborghini, a yellow McLaren Senna and a red Porsche, besides some vintage beauties. A TV screen silently plays videos related to Singhania’s racing achievements. The man himself is in a red Raymond T-shirt, yellow Saber shoes and jeans, shuttling between conversations and coordination in a cordoned-off section, even as sundry visitors’ cell phone cameras flash around the pit.

The 53-year-old textile baron, car collector, racer, adrenalin junkie and adventure seeker has moved on to a different chapter of his life – switching from high-speed racing to motor sport administration, focusing on his responsibilities as a member of the World Motor Sport Council, which is a part of the FIA. There’s a time and a place for everything and that, vis-à-vis racing, he says, has passed.