Nice job

Joel, He was not the one blocking.. His name is Santoosh.. He himself was pushed off to grass in the semis but managed to qualify for the finals. There were other guys who did the blocking thing.. Some look back and get to ur line..
I guess i am not experienced enough in overtaking.. But Its pretty difficult to judge when these guys would change lines..

I realized that though u carry enough corner speed, u need to know how to overtake.. else u end up slowing down..

Will give a detailed write-up on my experience..

Congrats Sajiv...finally an xBhpian makes a mark...wish you many more in the future...

Wow! This is exciting stuff. I congratulate you.

Wow! Exciting News!! My best wishes Sajiv and Good Luck!!

congrats sajiv, wish to hear about the timings as well.

congrats sajiv...lets count this as the beginning of many...

Congrats dude....i really wish i own an R 15 to compete in such races....

My experience (long post warning)

I am pretty bad at putting such experiences to words. But nevertheless, I ll give it a try.. here it goes..

I still remember the first R15 championship that I had attended(dec 2008). I had no clue how the track would be. I thought riding fast on the streets was enough.. I didnt even have a riding jacket and I got the right reception. The track took some paint off my shoulder and my palm..
but I liked the track. Infact I loved it. Though I crashed I wanted to ride again.

This is when I came to know abt Killer and Joel thru XBHP. Went searching through the forum trying to find info on racing/chennai track. http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/universa...ingthread.html was my first stop. Read through the pages several times. Also read more stuff abt cornering through other sources. Now it was time to try things out. And Trackdays proved to be the perfect learning ground.

The next R15 championship was help in March 2009. I ended up finishing 6th in the beginner class. What I was doing was not enough and I had to get more practice. The Kari Trackday(April 2009) was something special. I got a chance to tail Killer and Joel. On the next track day at chennai(May 2009), I could feel that I was carrying much better corner speed with my best lap time being 2:25. Now I couldn't wait for the next race. I wanted to know where I stand. Lucikly, we had a trackday one week prior to the next race. But I was able to do only 2:27 which did dent my confidence as I was 2 sec slower than before.

THE day came. I was pretty anxious. There were abt 120 entries in the beginner class. The class was divided into 25 member groups for the heats. Your reg-number for the race decides your place on the grid for the heats(yeah.. It might sound stupid But I guess yamaha cant help it atleast for the beginners). My reg-number was 39(14th in my group).

Heats(3 laps): I wanted to atleast be in the top three in the heats to stand a chance in the semis. Lap 1 was crucial. I got the inside line at C2 and saw that a lot of ppl overcooked the corner(Its a difficult corner for anyone new). I moved from 14th all the way to 5th in the first lap and finished first.

Semis(3 laps): I had a very bad start. I was down to abt 7th but gained some ground and was fighting for 2nd place at the end of lap1. That rider was all over the place at C1 and I took the inside line and overtook him.. I braked early at C2 and he took the inside line overtaking me.. C3 was mine.. C4 was his( I braked early again damn).. overtook him again in the long right hander. I could see the person in first position and starting pushing hard. I caught up with him at c4 in the 3rd lap. he saw me coming and started taking a tighter line. I tried to go around the oustide but couldnt make it stick. Finally finished second inches behind the first.

Finals(5 laps): Another horrible horrible start.. added to this, a guy banged onto my front wheel trying to overtake me before the first corner(man.. it was one scary moment.. thank God I did not crash. I had 10 bike behind me). I was pushed way down. Slowly I moved up to fifth at the end of 3rd lap. The guy in first position was nowhere in sight. The rest of the guys were pretty close. I took the inner line at C1, all of a sudden the guy in front changed his line and slowed down!!! luckily I didnt bang into him. This continued for some more corners. I got a chance to overtake and move to 4th place but the two guys in front were dangerously blocking me. Took the outside at C10 and gained one position but i lost it again in the home straight.. Final lap.. again C1.. both the riders in front overcooked the entry into CI.. I took the inside line again. Grounded my knee at C1( man it was scary to ground the knee at 110+) and made it stick..moved to 2nd position. Now I had a clear track ahead and started riding hard.. Finished 2nd..

State championship(3 laps): The race was only for 3 laps. I managed to come 1st at the end of the third lap(I overtook that guys at the penultimate corner of the 3rd lap) but the officials didnt wave the flag. . Meanwhile the other person overtook me.. I made a mistake at C2 and lost available time finally finishing 2nd.. we talked with the officials after the race but they decided to make it a 4 lap race and I remained 2nd..

Many here have achieved much greater things but this one is special more me. Something I always wanted to do.. something that I had dreamt about.. My first step into racing..

He is a KA rider. I had problems with him too. He rode like a complete moron. He kept blocking me all over, and was slower than me. Next time i find someone slower, blocking me intentionally, i am gonna be very aggressive.
He is just supposed to ride hard to win, not put his arse in the path of others and keep them behind.

Those buggers know nothing about racing. Anybody remembers the reverse track experience at Coimbatore?
Never mind those idotic things sajiv, you did a great job. Thats what counts here.

Congrats Sajiv.You made all of us proud.Wish you a lot of luck for future races.

Thanks Niranjan. But Killer and Joel have already done much more..

Thanks Ken.

Thanks da..

Thanks man. As per my brother, I had done a best of around 2:22 in the race. This was what he told me but I am sure that i bettered my previous best of 2:25. Intermediate class timings were around 2:19 and experts were doing 2:15s

Thank you..

Thank you. What happened to ur plans of getting a second hand R15?

I was not close to him in any of the race. So I cant comment on him. but there were ppl who did block intentionally..

Thanks MG..

Congratulations buddy... way to go dude... keep up the pace... sure one day u will be on the top step of the podium

Congrats Sajiv. Nice to see xBHP on podiums.

Who was the guy in first position?? Still wearing the shades even in night.