Hey Joel,just for the record,what position did sharath and TVS Racing riders finish in the first race of leg 2? Coz i remember somebody told me that sharath finished behind the TVS Rider.

^On the same note, what happened during the second race?

It must be admitted that the private teams are now upping the game. Moto-rev India is is also doing an excellent job being a private team. Pacer Yamaha showed TVS racing what real racing was in 2008. It cant be concluded that a factory team always wins. Worldover, private teams are mighty enough to stand the might of deep pocketed factory teams. Physics remain the same for a factory team or a puny budget team. period.

Dude, member since 2003 and your first post

Lost touch after the site rebuild.used to post regularly when it was bajajpulsar.com.once it became xbhp.com,lost all my previous posts...

Yes the motor racing scene in India has definitely improved now with the entry of the private teams.That said it is sacrilege to say the factory team is not in the scene or that they are lagging behind by light years.I have a few buddies who work in TVS and now i know the facts.Karthik of TVS Racing finished 2nd beating Sharath of TEN TEN racing in Race 1.In Race 2,until the last lap it was a very close fight between Sreeskandaraja,Karthik and Sharath but then Karthik crashed out on the final lap.And i don't think it is a story of David vs Goliath.I don't think they have a multi crore rupee budget.None of the teams have any advantage over each other.In fact,while you get strap on performance parts for the R15 from malaysia and thailand,i don't think even a modified exhaust system for the RTR is available anywhere in the world(leave alone fully done cylinder heads and valves).
Everything said and done,at least now there is something to talk about when it comes to Indian motorcycle racing.

^Yes, everybody uses bolt-on parts on the R15, but me...need proof?(lemme know, I'll be glad to show you my cylinder head and then get ready for a shock). Yes we import tyres and consumables, but the engine tech is my stuff(confirm with your malaysian consultant if need be). Being a TVS factory team, you guys have all the tech to build anything desirable, yet outsource tech from malaysia. The point is all the other teams who are using these readymade cylinder head kits/CDIs/carbs etc from indo, thailand etc are all stuck at a level. Ram, you very well know who set the fastest laptime around the track in both the rounds(including quali). Circuit racing is more of the rider than the bike. Karthik and sri have more racecraft than sarath who is just half the age of sri. Karthik crashed out after the commence of the 4th lap. However the whole track was withness to the performance of the engines, thats all I care about not where the riders stand. Both during round 1 and round 2.
Frankly, I wish I could build a group B based on the RTR, but my team was hell bent on the R15 with some bias towards yamaha. It would have been more exciting.
I know what it took for TVS to get to that laptime, hatts off to you and the efforts of your team.
Yes, I'm really delighted that the indian racing scene is growing very well.

Joel

hey joel,i never said ur bike is slow...i haven't voiced one bit of criticism against any of the teams...all of them are doing a great job including yourself,motorev india and pacer yamaha.But to mouth off all other teams is just plain unsporting.Win or lose,TVS Racing has never belittled anybody and is always welcoming competition.Competition makes the bikes faster and gives meaning to the work everybody puts in.I would've never spoken a word had you not posted all that stuff in the thread.Sreeskandaraja matched your lap time.We were slower by 0.365 seconds.The way you had put it,an ill informed person reading it would've thought that our bikes were being overlapped.Our bike was in no way slower than yours.The engine was really good,we had really serious issues with suspension.And even you know all the bikes were equal on the power and top speed front.Whoever got the slipstream came ahead on the straights.one lap karthik was ahead,next lap sharath,and the third sree.and please don't belittle your own rider.Sharath is a very capable guy,equally talented as anybody else.Even our new guy Jagan did an extremely good job and stayed with the front bunch inspite of being the guy with the lowest experience.I just got really riled reading ur posts.We don't race to market our RTR's.Have you ever seen one ad of our racing results? we race coz we love doing it.I speak for each and every one in our team.Right from the mechanic to the general manager.We race coz that's our first passion.Winning and losing are part of the game.

And for the record,the malaysian tuner that you are talkin about has not given one ounce of input on the RTR's.He was called only once for the TVS NEO for the FIM round.Whatever goes in the RTR is pure Indian brain.

This exchange can go on for ever and ever.I applaud your effort and the results that you have been rewarded with.I wish you the best of luck for the coming round.

Joel, I have read a lot about you through the forums and I admire your passion and respect the work that you are doing!

Congratulations from my end!

@cyclops - Thanks for bringing out your identity. Ram, that was a wild guess and I was spot-on
Just to clear a little bit of air here, well there was no mention that you guys were slow. All that was discussed in the previous post was only over your claimed output(while displayed at the expo, which sounds too optimistic) and if we talking about engine power, we know who has the lightest machine in the lot.
I'm personally a great fan of TVS racing since childhood and they have really paved a great path in the indian racing scene. Hatts off to the efforts. yes and I know its pure passion, no denying here. And I didnt target an ill-informed person to conclude in any sense.
On the other note, like how your rider (read your group B rider) is spreading air around the circuit/community that our bike uses malaysian/outer-space tech is as misleading as what I stated about your RTR project. Nobody wants to believe that an Indian could do this much. I really pity all those who cant afford to appreciate an individuals effort. I'm really game if anyone wants to see whats foreign in my engine.
The way you guys have transformed that RTR into a machine that fast is truly commendable.
Apologies if I have misinterpreted any info here.
All the best to your team for the upcoming races.

Race Tuning & More

Joe & Ram ... criticism for race tuners are nothing new and are always accused of using things out of the rule book. Right from the Sholavaram days its the way of life for race tuners here. Just with one factory team & 2- privateers ... you guys are fighting it like this. I have seen more than 6 Private tuners fight it out with 2 factory teams in this same track. The winning team usually Volunteers or Forced by Scurtineers to show they acheived it clean under the rules.

Further the death of the Karizma Class was due to bad scurtineering as most tuners converted their younger staples into ZMA racers as the rule book never allows that. Pure cheating and well thats racing today. Many people with limited funds cannot even afford to do all the round of the championship now, where on earth they are gonnu find the money to appeal for scurtineering for engine tear down.

During the heights of Motor racing in this country RD engines for the Group B racing were sent to England for Tuning & re-build ... can you believe it. That doesn't mean the Private Tuners with The Group C that acheived greatrer things using only locally available parts were dick heads. There is still alot of potential that can be exploited from a good Privateer Tuner provided he has the time, access to right resources & most importantly the unlimited funds.

Factory teams are far bigger with all the resourcess and no different than Privateers. The main difference being they can multi task a given problem & achieve the solution faster. In India where production dominates racing, I don't thing TVS Racing enjoys the same status as HRC in Honda. Even with the fastest super computer if you inputs are garbage ... the soultion is still garbage.

A 10 year old kid who does the grass cutting & snow removal in my home in Nova Scotia, who is also training to be a Local Moto-Cross Racer, Whom I encourage alot. The Kid started with CRF-50 @ age 4 & currently owns CRF 150 F and is far more dedicated and knowledgable and hard working to achieve his goal than many other Race Teams & Tuners that I have come across here. Let's stop fighting, don't critizies, apperciate each others hard work and reach greater heights as Indain Motorcyclist.

Cheers - TZ750

Wow! that was some insight guys. I wish this discussion went on for ever, nice stuff to read.

We clocked a 1:59.2 officially during the race (during testing 1.58.3) and won it with a lead that was worth a million words. The fastest Indian bike ever around the circuit! First Indian bike to break the 2 mins barrier!
Our team did a splendid job and Sarath was spectacular as ever to do this invincible act. Looking forward for the next round.

This is fantastic news! Congratulations to you and your team bro!!

Jesus Christ, This is insane.

Cars* costing a bomb duck under 2's at MMST.

*Four wheels for traction.

This is an awesome feat, hope you guys drank till the King dome arrived.

From your post I assume that you work for TVS Racing... while you have a company's resources available to you, Joel will be working with limited resources... he is justified in the pride he feels for what he has been able to achieve.... i.e. prepping a bike that can beat a factory prepped bike... he is keeping you honest and helping you expand your envelopes... reminds me of the days when a bunch of privateers on RX100s were giving your team and its factory prepped Supras' a run for your money......