Karthik Purushothaman who has filed this report for us is a champion bike racer from India stood second overall in UCAL ROLON road racing national championships in 2006 & 2007 is participating in the Malaysian Super Series (MSS) 2008 in the production bikes cup (135cc) series.
He is supported by his parents, TVS Motor Company and Perot Systems IBPS Chennai. Here is what he has to say about his first race weekend of 2008 in MSS.
Practice:
Karthik started the 1st round enthusiastically, but his bad luck in the qualifying session pushed him to start his race from 15th grid on Saturday. He had a new engine and the team had asked him to run it in for 4-5 laps and then try to push the bike in the practice session before qualifying. After 4 laps just as he was starting to push hard to get a good timing, he thought he heard a different engine sound and decided to come into the pits, the engine packed up.
Good to see companies like Perot Systems supporting our riders abroad.
Qualifying:
Due to loss of time and an engine in practice, the team had asked him to not to push the bike too much and to learn the track and get used to the bike. This is so that he can push hard in the race. So, a conservative qualifying and led him to a 15th place on the grid for the races.
Harry (left) and Karthik (right) are also team mates on the TVS Racing team
Race 1:
He started his race on Sunday in a wet condition due to unprecedented rainfall before the race, but Karthik was determined to pull up from the 15th position and raced past others to the 3rd position on the very second lap. But as luck would have it, the bike had some technical problem with the engine and he had to pull out from the race and join back immediately as his snag was rectified. After joining back he raced past the others from the 13th position to finish the first race at 8th position.
Karthik crashes due to a jammed engine in race 2
Race 2:
Karthik still started his second race in a positive note and he was 8th on the grid due to his finishing position in the 1st race. His engine again had some problem at start of the race, but he was determined to win and gain points to add to his championship. Bad luck again struck and he could not finish the race as his engine was jammed in the first corner of the second lap and was thrown out from his bike, with minor injuries to his hand and leg.
Karthik is determined and is working hard for the next round of MSS which is to be held on May 24th and 25th of 2008.
