Mildwave

Let the words flow. Let the pictures speak

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 first day of the wildcard round was opened up by a young driver who couldn’t just control his eagerness to get going. Awaiting his turn, he could be seen pacing around the kart. What’s more he moved around so much that we were unable to get a stable image that included him. We are talking about Arya Gandhi, the first contestant not only for the wildcard round, but also for the 12 to 14 age group. The Mumbaikar looked confident and it was evident, when speaking to us he said he would be the guy that would get selected. On being asked about the time he had thought to have been set, his calmly replied, 23 flat! In spite of having clocked the second best timing for the day, overall, he missed his estimation by 1.33 sec, a nominal difference, the auditor would say.
The next contestant to heat the tracks was Vibhor Tyagi from Delhi, a commerce student, his interests lie in automobiles. He wishes to get into aviation, quickly adding that its unfortunately not possible. Contradicting interests, you can say. Unfortunately, he could not beat the time set by his predecessor.

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.

At the end of day one, remaining unbeaten are Arya Gandhi, with the lap best of 24.331, in the age group 12-14 and Mohit Ahuja, with a lap best of 23.973. With the best times already being in league with the top brass, we can only expect more talent to pour in, in the following days.

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