It depends on us how we take our life
and I guess that’s the most important thing you should think about…For me…Life
is about keeping ourselves involved and make it exciting in our own way… I
really don’t understand why people get bored with their lives…
If I start to reflect…for me even
24 hours are too short … I want to do so much more in life…
I have a long list of my desires
and have a strong urge to do something new every day….I want to be an awesome
Mom… A friendly wife… A passionate lover…A prolific writer…A boundless traveler…
An avid Photographer…. An amazing cook… …Somebody who is equally adept at
balancing family life with professional life… A sought after social symbol... Sometimes a
child…Sometimes a responsible daughter and daughter in law…sometimes a stubborn
friend and an adventurer…and a new thought to keep me going everyday :)
I am always high on life and I am
happy that I am doing almost everything I wish for…
Recently one of my desires goaded
me to participate in a Rally… since I am high on life my car also moves on the
fast track… I am a fast driver and here I give all credit to my husband who
taught me driving.
I got a chance to participate in
Speed sprint, the motorsport event held near Khuda Jassu village in Chandigarh on
17th March 2013... My First ever Speeding Rally...
If I think of speed I think of My
Swift dzire… We own a Mercedes-Benz, a Fortuner, an Alto and an Opel Astra but
for this kind of track I decided to drive the Dzire… it’s extremely peppy and handles
like a dream :)
This was the second edition of Speed
Sprint and the categories for this event were Zip…Zap…Zoom…
Zip – For normal road going cars
Zap – For rally prepared cars
Zoom – For motorcycle
With over 150 participants and a track
of almost 9 kilometers, Speed Sprint placed our city beautiful on the motorsport
map. Professional racing teams like Team Thunderbolt, Team KTM and BG Racing
participated in the event.
Friends and organizers of Speed
sprint Gulpreet Aulakh and Nikhil Deep Singh Jaspal as well as Nidhi Aulakh inspired me to participate and I filled my entry in the Zip
Category…
When I reached for the scrutiny on Saturday- 16th March, my
heart skipped a beat…thanks to Nikhil who took me for a test drive in a Chevrolet
cruze and the way he drove was extremely impressive. It was time to check out
the track and I was really thrilled :).
While
taking the recce of the track in the cruze, I realized it’s going to be a tough
day tomorrow. The Cruze was a road burner and had an amazing softness to the
ride… you can say it was handling like a rally car with the luxury of a sedan.
End result…I enjoyed driving it :) but
tomorrow was a different day altogether.
A few more lessons added by Mr. Sudev
Brar, a part of the organizing team, who taught me about driving and drifting
the car. My love for motorsports started gearing up.
Speed Sprint was organized by Team
Chandigarh Adventure Sports (TCAS) in association with Incarnation Sports,
Chevrolet and Thunderbolt.
TCAS is a city-based motorsport
club formed about seven years ago. My organisation recently sponsored and I
participated in SantaBanta.com’s Women’s Rally and Vintage Car Rally organized
by them.
Coming back to reality… My car was
assigned # 006…1 number less than
the inimitable & slick James Bond :)
I was
definitely stirred but not shaken for tomorrow’s adventure. 006 stickers were pasted allover on my
car and I was driver no 86 for tomorrow… all paper work was done and I was
there till late evening, all excited for an action packed tomorrow…
Just as the sun was bidding goodbye
to the track and the scrutiny area in came another inspiration from Superfast Sunny Sidhu…he took over my
car and literally set the track on fire in my car… That was his way of
preparing a budding driver for the speed sprint tomorrow. He was too good and
as usual a true professional :) It shows
when you eat, sleep and breathe rallying and cars…
Went back home famished after a hectic
day but absolutely ready for tomorrow… raring to go for it
Well… it was a long night…I guess
the adrenalin was pumping a little earlier than I thought… Had a sleepless
night and hence next day morning I was there at 7.30 sharp and I guess I was
the first one to reach…All the work was going on and JCB’s were making the
track more interesting and challenging... but by then I was ready for anything
that they planned to throw at me….. My Motto at that time was “Bring It ON.. I
Can do it better”
Slowly all the participants started
coming and soon there was a long row of participants…
Finally, around 11.00 the event
started with Zap and Zoom category…
The spectators, mostly consisting
of people from nearby villages and motoring enthusiasts from the city were
excited to see the event. They were clapping and rooting for all the
participants. I loved the dust clouds speeding cars made. It was a nice
experience but I was pretty nervous for my turn...
I enjoyed every bit of it…
meanwhile I missed some action as, twice I had to go to a far away hotel to use
a washroom…It’s so tough to be a Woman Driver :(
Finally our category started at
3.00 pm and I was supposed to be the first one to be flagged off... However, due
to the previous sections the track we were supposed to use was damaged and the
organizers were forced to make some last minute changes to the route for Zip category.
New 5 kms. Long route… We followed
Mr. Sudev Brar in a row for a recce and again lined up to race :) It was action time folks…
My heartbeat was like a superfast
train and with a helmet on I was so nervous… first time in my life I wore a
helmet while driving a car... First time in my life I was driving a Car without
MUSIC and I was all set to go…
The GO light blinked and I went like an unfettered
wild horse… I am a fast driver and wherever I get a chance I love to race my
car…but trust me it was so tough to drive on such platform… speeding and
controlling your car at the same time is actually challenging… it was just not high
speed driving, but also highly skilled driving, with extreme control on part of
the driver in negotiating the turns.
The track had incorporated all the
challenging aspects like tight turns, high speed dips and jumps as well as
elevation and terrain changes. Take along the pressure of competitive driving,
and the event becomes a very absorbing spectacle.
It was a mind blowing experience to
drive on a road full of obstacles such as gravel, stones and slush… on the
entire track, I had butterflies in my stomach… my heart was pounding fast all
through. In hindsight, I realized I could have done much better...but my second
round was worse than the first one :(
Well…
Not a bad effort for the first time I guess…
5 Minutes and 18 seconds was my
final score...Lost my 9 seconds :(
Since childhood I had a passion for
driving. But Speed Sprint was a different experience all together.
With the support of my husband and continuous push from Sunny
Sidhu, I ended up being the 1st runnerup in women’s
category….I wanted to speed up more and more but to be very frank at the same
time I was more concerned about my car & my nears and dears…I guess you
need to be like a wild horse to opt for this passion... unfettered and
unbridled
Next time I will try to
be more furious and will take the No. 1 position :)
I always appreciate people who are
dedicated to this profession and I am really looking forward to learn from
their experiences… it was so nice to meet and interact with different set
of people specially friends like Nitin Yadav, Harmeet Gill, Mini Sidhu, Purnima
Rana Jaspal, Kabir Waraich and Ruban Grewal
and many
more friends.
It was a great event and looking
forward to participate and win titles in many such events :)
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