PURSUIT OF SPEED

TVS conducts the seventh edition of the Young Media Racer Program, and here's what not to do on the track

- Keshav Teiva Poumai 

I was sitting at the Mumbai airport waiting to board my flight to Chennai, while simultaneously making up scenarios of how my first time on the track would play out. Would I be able to learn quickly, or would I crash and make a fool out of myself in front of all my peers? Maybe I would find out that I was a racetrack prodigy just waiting to be discovered (yeah, right). By then I had realised that my imagination was wandering too far. I snapped back into reality and looked up to see a few other journos also waiting at the gate.

I struck up a conversation to find out what the others thought about this opportunity, and almost immediately received a barrage of anecdotal advice, passed down from the seniors to each of us within each of our respective media houses. From detailed explanations of the track layout, to various tips and tricks to be faster than the competition, not to forget the strict instructions to have fun in the process. Well, there sure was a lot to look forward to, and by then I was able to fairly gauge what awaited us upon arrival.

The Young Media Racer Program is an initiative by TVS Racing to give budding automotive journalists, like myself, a proper hands-on experience of what it is like to actually race. With actual classroom sessions to give us the lowdown on the track and a crash course (maybe not the best scenario to use this) on communication via flags, TVS was thorough with it all. Not to mention, we were being coached by TVS MC National Champions, with real-time feedback and instruction on the fly.