The Finale

After two intense back-to-back races, the TVS Young Media Racer Programme’s One Make Media Championship concluded

- Alshin Thomas

THE FINAL TWO ROUNDS OF THE TVS One Make Media Championship took place on the same day at the Madras International Circuit (MIC), Chennai. In the first round held in June this year, I had finished third. The second round, originally scheduled for August, had to be postponed due to an unfortunate racing incident at the track.

The race weekend was then scheduled for the end of October, which arrived sooner than we thought as we headed to Chennai. As usual, Saturday was for practice, followed by qualifying, and Sunday the race day.

During practice, I quickly realized how far off my pace was compared to the others who seemed to have undergone some serious training during the intervening time. The last time I was on a track, I was violently thrown off a bike and luckily only ended up with a fractured ankle and some bruises. The fear remained with me after that, though, because it seemed to have seeped into my practice session where I set a time of 2:27, four seconds slower than my best time at the MIC and 13 seconds slower than the fastest time of that session, placing me in ninth in the time sheet.

Then during the five laps that were given for qualifying, I set a time of 2:18.4, getting placed in fourth. This was five seconds faster than my previous record time at the track and a nine-second improvement on the practice session earlier.