KTM RC Cup Media Race: A First-hand Report

The Cup

The RC Cup is a one-make racing championship starring the RC390 in stock form. It is an event which is only open to KTM owners. This year, one had to go through the regional rounds conducted at eight cities to qualify. The ten fastest riders in each city then headed to the Madras International Circuit - or MIC - for the finale.

That makes a sum total of 80 adrenalin-filled individuals.

Now one cannot allow such a large bunch out together on a track, especially when the latter isn't all that wide. It could be mayhem. To keep this in check, the riders had to go through the Superpole qualifying. Superpole entails sending out only four riders on the track in one go but set off 10 seconds apart. The riders get one out lap, one timed lap, and then it's back to the pits.

This was repeated 20 times to cover all 80 riders.

Superpole was followed by a conventional qualifying session for the selected riders, which decided the final grid line-up for the first of the three races. For the media cup, there was no Superpole, just your typical old-school qualifying session. I managed to qualify second, but only just.  

The Race

As the lights went out, I held my second place entering corner one. It was an achievement because I am the self-proclaimed king of awful race starts. Furthermore, I kept up with the lead rider - Sagar Sheldekar - for the first few corners.

This, too, deserves a pat on the back, given he was two seconds a lap faster than me in qualifying. But then the reality started to set in. He began pulling away and moving closer to the horizon, corner after corner. I, in the meantime, settled into a comfortable pace imagining I was in for a lonely race right up to the chequered flag.

But, entering the first corner with two laps to go, I was overtaken by fellow rider Deepak Vishnu. Now, any racer worth their salt would fight to get back in the position almost immediately. They would up their pace, take a few risks, and do whatever it takes to move back up the pecking order. So naturally, I decided to sit back and follow.

Seven corners later, Janak Sorap - an ex-colleague - rode past me. Deepak hadn't hunted me down alone; he had brought a chaser along. So now I was in fourth and off the podium. I still had the final lap to take back what was rightfully mine.

I could have dived on the inside into turn four. I could have gotten on the throttle harder at the exit of turn eight and taken advantage of Janak running wide. I could have slipstreamed, braked later, been brave, and come out ahead; you know, done the ‘racy’ things. Instead, I sat up, tailed him, and waited for him to run off the track, which he didn’t. So, I finished a handsome fourth.

My Realisation

An interesting fact: Every rider on the grid in the media race - no matter how fast or slow - improved their lap times by a significant margin with every passing session. Everyone but me. My times were more or less the same, session after session. It was clear that I had no intention of going faster than I already was; not a quality one looks for in a motorcycle racer.  

I had also expected a fire to be lit in my tummy once I fell back. That is, after all, what gets the racing spirit going. The fire had two opportunities in this race to catch, but it never did. No wonder I qualify second and only finish fourth, repeatedly. The bigger realisation for me was that I was not going to change; I would never have that fire in the belly to go all out.

Does this mean I won’t go racing anymore? Of course not! I did pay for the whole year’s racing licence. And there always exists the possibility that the faster riders in front of me might crash, handing me a well-deserved podium finish. Or maybe even a race win! 

Photography by: Kaizad Darukhanawala