Street Motorcycle

Sarath Kumar takes a break from professional racing Does any Indian care

I need not be ashamed that as a motorcycle enthusiast from India.. I do not watch MotoGP

Racing.. Motorcycle Racing.. Motorcycling racing in India and Indians.. So what up?

First Indian to have featured at Moto GP (125 class), thinking of driving a Taxi now..

TVS Motors prides itself with its 20+ years of racing heritage in the domestic racing scene. Mahindra currently participates in the Moto3 category at the premier World MotoGP Championship and also participates in a 125 cc, 2 stoke racing championship in Italy, Hero MotoCorp has made a big PR splash with its association with EBR (Eric Buell Racing) in the AMA (in some American racing series). Honda and Yamaha (& also TVS) runs their “one make races” in the domestic motorcycle racing scene. And the big news is that come 2013 and India (& Buddh International Circuit) will feature the World Superbike Championship calendar..!!

Personally, I have never cared to follow motorcycling racing. How can I? At the highest level, I see no passion in trying to root for a racer/manufacturer of foreign origin. At the domestic level there is zilch coverage of the racing events to get me interested (actually hardly anybody cares for even Ranjit Trophy). That’s one reason you won’t find me posting about racing.

Blogs, auto sites, forums go gaga “copy + pasting” the news and press releases (that automatically finds its way to the inbox of bloggers like me) of how racing is alive and kicking in India. But when the first Indian to have ever featured in a MotoGP (125 cc class in 2011) race decides not to race citing “personal” reasons, nobody cares and goes well.. unnoticed.

Story of Sarath Kumar:

Sarath Kumar will be remembered in history as the first Indian to feature in the premier 125 cc class at MotoGP in 2011. Although it was not a fairy tale affair with him struggling to just qualify for the initial races and managing to race in just one circuit and finishing last in it. After that Sarath (and probably his Indian team Ten10) did not participate for the entire 2011 season. Things appeared bright for Sarath once Mahindra Racing decided to take him under their wings and let him race as one of their racers in the 125 cc class in a 2012 (ongoing) Italian racing championship. Sarath did well and even managed to secure a third spot in one of the races.



But a few weeks back there appeared a video on Youtube about Sarath and how he was struggling to meet his family commitments and keep his racing passion alive at the same time. Sarath who is still a young boy, revealed in that video that he was contemplating on taking up driving a taxi to be able to support his family financially. He did thank his team, Mahindra Racing on supporting him and giving opportunity to race for them but due to the lack of a sponsor, he was now finding it hard to concentrate on racing.

And just a couple of days after the video, I came across a news article which said that Sarath opts out of the Italian Championship citing “personal’ reasons. Surprisingly this news hasn’t been able to create the same amount of buzz.

It’s probably fashionable to talk about Rossi/Lorenzo/Moto GP and how WSBK is coming to India, how Honda/TVS/Yamaha is supporting domestic racing in India, how Hero Moto and Mahindra Racing is taking India’s name in the international racing circuit.. but when it comes to someone as humble like Sarath Kumar and what it seems like giving up on racing (God forbid), nobody seems to care. Come on, how much would it take to take care of Sarath’s finances? Rs. 30-40K per month? That would be like a single 10 second Ad spot on Prime time TV..!!



If this is how Indians care about racing, I am relieved that I should not be ashamed as a biker that I don’t watch MotoGP.

Related Posts

• Indonesians, Indians, Myself and MotoGP [Jun 2011]



• Mahindra, Ten10 Racing to be the first ever Indian teams at MotoGP [Nov 2010]

Disclaimer:

This is to remind that the Views or Opinions in the blog are entirely mine unless explicitly stated. The Views and Opinions published in this blog should in no way be related to any other person or organization associated -- directly or indirectly -- with me.