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.