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.
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.
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.
Awesome website, Love it, great work done.
ReplyDeletewww.office.com/setup
www.office.com/setup
www.office.com/setup
www.office.com/setup
www.office.com/setup
Thanks for your article. It was interesting to read about the first Indian motorcycle racer in the MotoGP championship. This guy really was on his way to success, sorry for family circumstances and lack of funds forced him to refuse to participate in the Italian championship. I hope he can get out of this financial hole and start representing India again at such world championships. The World Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing Championship, also MotoGP, is the premier prestigious motorcycling road racing competition. By the way, I recommend that you post this article on your Facebook page, because given the popularity of this social network among motorcycle fans, they will definitely be interested in learning about Zarate Kumar. I sometimes saw posts about motorcycle races there and noticed that they had 55 thousand likes! I am sure this is because their authors often use the services of https://soclikes.com/buy-facebook-likes in order to wind up likes for posts on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI like moto racing and have tiktok profile about it. I get many followers for this profile. I read how to get followers from this site https://teecycle.org/lifestyle/lets-say-youre-a-beginner-tiktoker-what-do-you-need-to-do-to-become-instantly-popular/
ReplyDeleteIngin makan camilan sehat bebas minyak goreng? Bisa nih coba opak bakar Kuningan. Opak ini dibikin berbahan landasan beras ketan dan kelapa yang diolah dengan dipanggang. Gurih sekali waktu digigit karena opak ini iris kecil dan tipis, pas selaku camilan sehat Anda.
ReplyDeleteAda satu dusun produsen opak di Kuningan. Dusun itu namanya Mandirancan yang aktif menghasilkan opak untuk dialokasikan ke pusat oleh-olehan ciri khas Kuningan. Camilan ini dapat Anda buat jadi rekan ngopi pada pagi hari.
Anda dapat berkunjung ke dusun Mandirancan bila pengin memperoleh camilan ini pada harga lebih dapat dijangkau, atau Anda dapat datangi toko oleh-olehan Teh Diah yang terkenal di Kuningan. Opak bakar dipasarkan dengan bermacam ukuran. https://dapur-mama.net/ Ukuran yang paling kecil dimulai dari 30 cm x 10 cm yang dapat didapat pada harga sekitar 20ribu saja.
Thanks for your article. It was interesting to read about the first Indian motorcycle racer in the MotoGP championship. This guy really was on his way to success, sorry for family circumstances and lack of funds forced him to refuse to participate in the Italian championship. I hope he can get out of this financial hole and start representing India again at such world championships. The World Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing Championship, also MotoGP, is the premier prestigious motorcycling road racing competition. Don't you think it's worth posting these thoughts on Instagram? After all, this social network is now very popular. By the way, I advise you to use https://viplikes.net/buy-instagram-followers in order to quickly increase the number of subscribers and promote your account to the top.
ReplyDelete