Lights, Camera, Action.

The final day the one from a billion wildcard round was far from a normal day. The day began for us with an 18 year old kid setting the track on fire with a blistering speed of 23.737. Karting since he was an 8 year old kid, Parth was oozing with experience and it was clearly showing in his time as he gained time with every completed lap. A first year B.Com student from Kohlapur, he is a formula 4 racer. What’s more he also happens to be the national champion for three continous years from 2008 to 2010. Being asked what it was that got him into racing, he says its his craze for speed. Growing up watching F1, he adds, “The more you watch, the more you get into it”.

Support or no, I am racing..

Letting an interest to travel down the path of professional career, has always been a debatable issue. Atleast from the parents’ angle, you would say. The parent-children battle, over the choice of career has had a very long history, with all possible permutations long dealt with. In recent times we have had various movies on the same. However its easier said than done, which brings us back to the parents’ view, in turn, the debate. On the other hand, there are parents who are very supportive, doing every little thing they can to support their child’s interest. Support or no support, we have talent pour in, which brings us back to day 2 of the wildcard round. The second day saw just one competitor for Arya in the form of Srinath. Hailing from Hyderabad, a standard 9 student, Srinath has been karting from the time he was in 7th. However, that didn’t seem to help him much as he failed to cut through Arya’s timing. If the other competitor, Shamir clocked a 35.27, Srinath came closer by clocking 27.8, which still was over three seconds from beating Arya.

On the other hand, Mohit, the topper in the 17-19 group, at the end of day one, faced quite some competition. First of them was Akshay from Ahmadabad, an automobile engineering student, he managed to clock a 24.637. Rinaldo, a Goan, who has been into karting for three to four years went on the track soon after. Speaking to us, he said his dad was ok with his karting, whereas his mom was not happy with it. On finding out he had clocked a 25.121, he looked very disappointed and said it was one of his worst performances.

Next on the list was Viklesh, a Hyderabadi, mechanical engineering student, who got into karting hardly a week ago. For a person with hardly any experience to clock a 26.44, definitely not bad, you would say. Following him, to go on the track were Taran and Ahmed, who managed to clock 26.375 and 25.783 respectively. Another mechanical engineering student, hailing from Delhi, Taran says his parents find the sport dangerous. However they have no objection to his participation, which is evident from his presence, but they ask him to be safe.

The last of the lot in the 17-19 group was Yamir, an NRI whose parents are from Bengaluru, looked to be a promising talent. Being into the racing field for a few years and having experience of being a rotax racer, the American drove professionally. However, the best of his efforts failed to get him qualified as he managed to clock a 24.39, losing the top spot by half a second.

At the end of day 2 however, both Arya and Mohit still remain unbeaten. By the look of it, the time set looks strong enough to make it through tomorrow as well. However, the possibility of a surprise break in can never be ruled out. What the final day has got in store for us, we can only wait and watch.

A short day with quickies

‘Wish I were a year older, wish I were a month younger, so on and so forth..’ These thoughts, and many more similar ones were answered to, when The One From A Billion hunt decided to bring out a wild card round. As per the initial hunting regulations set up, the One from a billion was to come from the age group of 14 to 17 which meant the 12 to 14 age group would fall off as a result of early cut-off and the 17 to 19 age group would get chopped due to a late cut-off. The wildcard round takes form to amend just that. Unlike other wildcards, which usually include a knocked out competitor making it back to the challenge, this one was different. A tweak in the age limit, ensuring the inclusion of the 12 to 14 as well as the 17 to 19 age group, by opening up a slot each in both the groups, thus making the number of finalists to a hundred.

However, as all good things come with a catch, so does this one. A catch that is more of a glitch, a rule put in to ensure fairness to the contestants already done with. The catch goes on to say that, in order to be selected, the contestant is required not only to be the topper in his/her group but also has to beat the timing set by the 14th best contestant at the track.

The avid followers would recall reading about a mention of yellow line which lead to a cave that was used by Neanderthals to decide who’d lead the tribe, by karting. The wildcard round happened to stumble upon the same cave to find that amongst the structures installed as a part of the hall of fame, various happened to now have their nose pierced. No kidding, a clean pierce.

The light of the day came in the form of Mohit Ahuja, who also happens to have set the fastest lap timing for the day. Another Mumbaikar, he is been racing since eleven years, participating in various national and international events. He left behind a clear signature by beating the fastest time for the day by 0.2 seconds.