By Tanvi Kanchan
Last month, TVS Racing signed on Shreya Sundar Iyer, its first woman rider for the Indian National Rally championship. Motorsports aren’t often seen as being for women, but 24-year-old Iyer is just one of the growing number of Indian women making their mark on it. There’s Alisha Abdullah – India’s first female national racing champion, and the sisters Neha and Ria Dabas, who are racing in the touring car Volkswagen Vento Cup series. They’re women competing on some of the most challenging terrains in India, but they’re kicking ass – and winning – while at it.
16-year-old Mira Erda is one of the youngest professional racers in India, and she’s barely out of school yet. Erda says that her fascination with racing began while go-karting at a track in Vadodara, her hometown. She adds, “I used to do really well, so my dad asked me if I wanted to go a step further into professional racing. I just thought, let’s try it out and see what happens.” Erda then went to Pune to watch the National Championship. “There were a few accidents [on the tracks] too, but I thought it would be fun!” she says. She then completed a training programme and started racing professionally in 2010, at the age of – you won’t believe it – nine.
“Why do people drink coffee? Because they love it. Riding or racing is kind of like that, it becomes so natural, personal. When you race you’re completely awake, every single second that you’re on the race track. Every single sense in you is awake. I love the feeling of adrenaline at that time; I love that element of pushing yourself, and knowing whether you can make this corner or not. It’s thrilling,” says Chithra Priya, who’s the only Indian female biker to complete the Saddle Sore endurance ride. The race involves riding 1600 km in 24 hours, and this has earned her one of her three places in the Limca Book of Records. “I felt really confident. I knew so much about my bike by that time, and about my riding style. I loved every single second I spent on the road during the ride,” says the 32-year-old from Chennai.
Priya is full of stories from her racing. She’s encountered tree-uprooting elephants in a village, and has run out of fuel and “driven on fumes” on a pitch-black route. On a ride in Leh Ladakh, she once had a fall in a completely deserted area. “There was this huge sand patch cutting off the road, and my tyres weren’t designed for sand at all. I was very adventurous then, and I thought I’d go through the sand anyway. When I was throttling, and trying to get through, the tyres felt so smooth, it was like riding through oil. But then my bike gave up and flipped me over, and it landed on my leg,” she says, laughing. Priya then got back on her bike and rode 30 km back to the nearest town because there was nobody around except her friend, and no first aid, still trying to change gears with her leg. “When I finally got my X-ray taken, they told me that I’d broken four bones!” she says, laughing again.
One of Erda’s favourite races was in 2012, in Hyderabad. She finished first in the pre-finals, but was disqualified due to technical problems. “I had to start the race in the last position. I was a bit upset, but I got a lot of encouragement from my parents and teammates. By the time I saw the green flag, I had already overtaken seven people in the first corner, and in the third lap I was running first,” she says. Erda adds that her school has been very understanding and supportive about her career. “It’s also changed the way my schoolmates look at me – they all think I’m very cool!” she laughs.
But no racer can afford to ignore how dangerous racing can be. “My male competitors used to intentionally collide with me on the track so that I could mess up my race,” Erda says. Erda has also had a close shave during her first Formula Four race in Buddha International Circuit, Delhi. “It was raining and my car slid a bit. I hit the big railings and my left sphere and front alignment tires got broken. It was a really bad accident because the railings were really strong,” she says. But none of this dissuaded Erda from racing, “I’ve seen people having these accidents, and it’s become very common. It’s nothing new for me and I’ve accepted it as part of the sport. I just go for it.”
For Bombay-based racer Sneha Sharma, it’s the precision required to be a racer that brings her back to it time and again. The 25-year old says, “It’s my love for speed and precision. In any other sport you’re pushing your body to the limit, which is difficult. But pushing a machine to its limit and becoming one with it is something completely different and on another level. I think complexity is what drives me to it.”
Racing is an expensive sport, and Sharma says, “My family found it very difficult to fund my racing. They had to take out loans to educate me. I started working with my team part time, I used to take up managerial jobs for cleaning of cars, training the drivers, cleaning up the go-karts.” Sharma is also a pilot with Indigo Airlines, who happen to be one of her sponsors as well. “It’s difficult to balance both my professions. They’re both very demanding. I cut down on my social time; very often if my friends want to hang out with me, I end up inviting them to the gym while I work out!”
Motorsport racing is a very physically demanding sport – there are enormous amounts of upper body and leg strength required to steer and change gears, or be able to exert enough force on the clutch. Erda, Priya and Sharma all have demanding fitness routines that involve shoulder, arm and neck strength, as well as building leg force power. It’s a regimented programme that requires a lot of dedication along with several long hours at the gym.
In a field like motorsports, where the audience is a small and niche population, it’s often difficult to sustain a career. Priya, who is currently in Toronto, preparing to ride across North and South America, feels that the Indian government doesn’t do enough for motorsports. “Recognition is really hard,” she says, “our country doesn’t respect motorsports. Millions of people, talented people, they have no solution. There’s so many hierarchies that you have to break. But it is what it is. I’m a very positive person. You come to a point where you either give up, or you just keep going. I could never give up; I’ve tried! I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the end. At the end of it, if there weren’t so many risks, it wouldn’t be as fun!”