Speak of the Tourist Trophy race at the Isle of Man, and you should have the attention of any true-blue biker. Run through the streets of the quaint little British town at breakneck speeds, inches away from walls and haystacks, this is the stuff that makes MotoGP look like child?s play. Now picture this - in a country where 100cc commuters still rule the streets and motorcycle racing is a thing of fantasy, a team of young students from Pune armed with big dreams created history at this Mecca of racing earlier this year. Team Tork was always the underdog, but with their big smiles and deep grit, they managed to beat teams with immensely greater resources to finish on the podium of the world?s first all-electric grand prix - the TTXGP.
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The journey from a college project to a history maker is truly inspiring, even worth scripting a film on. Kapil Shelke, Ketan Mhasawade, Pankaj Gosavi and Krunal Nanavati were normal engineering students from Pune's DY Patil College of Engineering, albeit with big dreams. While designing an electric scooter for their regulation final year project, they decided it was just not exciting enough - they needed to make an electric bike instead. With massive amounts of knowledge and competence required in electricals and electronics, the mechanical engineering quartet was on shaky grounds to being with. Once on their way however, they came across the concept of the TTXGP, the world's first all-electric grand prix that was scheduled to run with the 2009 Isle of Man TT, and decided that they would have a go at it. The organizers of the race were also looking for participants, so encouragement was forthcoming.
That may have been the case as far as the foreign hand was concerned, but back home things were very difficult. Sourcing the cycle parts for the motorcycle from a Bajaj Pulsar 220 and then designing the trellis-frame chassis for the bike by themselves was fine, but when it came to integrating the batteries and the electric motor for the bike the boys ran into numerous dead ends. They called for parts from all around the world - the batteries came from China, the motor came from the UK - and most of it was blocked at the customs. To top it all up, nobody wanted to sponsor a beginner team for a race they had not even heard of. Finally, families of the team members agreed to pitch in and bear the complete expenses of the effort.
Tricking deadlines and cheating the possibility of not making it at every possible turn of events, Team Tork fought its way through and made it to the Isle of Man with their bike. At the venue, it was a case of serious complex looking at the preparation and professionalism of the other teams present. This was not a student competition after all. The cheerful guys found help forthcoming from the curious locals and other teams - from offering chargers to get their bike running right up to finding a rider who would ride their bike ? help was at hand from all corners for the gutsy bunch. The rider was local hero, Everest climber and multi-time TT participant John Crellin, who struck a deep rapport with the boys.
The tide turned after encouraging times in the practice sessions, and the Team Tork bike finished third in the open class with an average speed of 60.475 miles-per-hour. From the team at ZigWheels, a big congratulations to the team and best wishes for their future. And did we tell you that the youngsters are aiming for the top spot the next year? We hope prospective sponsors are listening!
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