HITTING THE APEX

Learning the art of racing with TVS Motor

- RITESH PATIL

It was quite unexpected. The call to attend the TVS Young Media Racer Program. Being the youngest member of the TURBOCHARGED team and being proficient in riding motorcycles surely helped but it was unexpected. The thought of not just riding on a racetrack but racing on it is a feeling to cherish. So what is TVS YMRP? The TVS Young Media Racer Program started in 2017 as a means of upskilling young auto journalists and social media influencers from all over the country and introducing them to racing.

Now in its seventh year, the programme had over 31 participants from around India. But before we go racing, we had to attend a class at the Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) in Chennai.

The day started with a small history lesson on TVS Racing by Pradeep HK, Marketing Manager, TVS; followed by an introduction to our instructors - Harry Sylvester, who would be conducting the classroom sessions, and Jagan Kumar, Deepak Ravikumar, Manoj K and Arvind Ganesh who would be our ontrack trainers.

The first lesson is about track safety and understanding the flags followed by a lesson on understanding racing lines. Harry taught us the basics use the full width of the track, stay wide before entering the corner, dart in to hit the apex followed by a wide exit, and most importantly, look where you want to go. Golden words indeed.

Theory class done, it was time to attend practicals. Back in college, we donned lab coats for chemistry practicals, here we had to get into race suits. Our apparatus, er, motorcycle for the practice and the races was the race-spec TVS RTR 200 4V! Compared to the stock motorcycle, the race-spec version drops the mirrors, headlamp, and tail lamp as well as front and rear fenders. It gets a free-flow exhaust and a slim but grippy 110-section TVS Eurogrip rear tyre.