Living on the edge

They flirt with danger every day soaring several feet through the air. CS Santosh, India’a most accomplished off-road racer, and Aravind KP, the first Indian rider to win a motocross championship outside India, have been raising dust for years and winning championships both home and abroad.

Coupled with that, these Bangaloreans’ silver screen presence in recent times have taken them a notch higher.

Santosh, a multiple national supercross and dirt track champion, wanted to be a rider ever since he was a kid. “Kids look for adventure and that’s what I wanted.”

But he was all set to be a software engineer as he entered college. “The year was 2000 and Sabeer Bhatia had set up Hotmail. I was also a student of St Joseph’s Boys’ High School like him. And I wanted to be like him,” he says.

But fate had other plans. “I knew I had talent in riding. At 18, I was looking out for avenues. I dropped out of college, which left my father very upset. Although we lived in the same house, we didn’t speak for six months. They didn’t see the dream I had. However, after the first few years, they understood that this is who I am,” he recollects.

The turning point was when he watched a supercross race at Palace Grounds and “that made me realise that I can make a career out of it,” he adds.

Aravind KP of Team TVS Racing, who has 13 national championships  and one national championship to his credit, started racing in 2005.

“I used to do a lot of track sports and swimming. My dad said if I scored 80 percent in college, he would get me a bike. I scored 84.7 percent and got one.  But my parents didn’t let me take the bike to college. I was from Manipal and my college was in Mangalore,” he remembers.

 “Once I got my bike, I went wild on the roads. But my mechanic told me not to kill myself on the road but to take part in student classes in racing.” Incidentally, he also met another individual, who asked him “to stop participating in local races and start racing nationally”.

I participated in the 2006 Gulf Dirt Track National Championship in Mangalore and finished first in four categories,” he says.

“Initially my parents didn’t know what I was doing till I started appearing in newspapers. They were never happy. Whenever I was hurt, they would ask me to stop. And then they hit the wall but they knew I wouldn’t listen. By then, I had also improved a lot. And now we have a peace treaty,” he says.

Once the duo was on track, they never looked behind. However, Aravind says that India is 20 years behind the international scene.

“Training is hard to come by and there is no infrastructure in India. That is why youngsters try to attempt stunts on streets. You need to encourage alternate sports,” says Santosh, who opened his own motocross park – Big Rock Motopark at Kolar. In a decade, Santosh has won every major motocross and supercross trophy in India and Sri Lanka and even become the highest ranked Indian on the Asian Circuit.

Ask about the challenges, and Aravind says, “It is expensive, especially the equipment. The best ones are not available in India  When it comes to the logistics part, the races happen at different places and you need to transport the bike,” he adds.

But for the duo, fame has come through another track as well. Their stunts in the film ‘Bangalore Days’ have turned the spotlight on them. “It was fantastic. I am recognised more now and that’s good for the sport. In future, I don’t mind taking up acting,” says Aravind.

“I am good looking. They had to take me,” jokes Santosh. “My perception of film-making changed after working in this one. I’d love to be on the screen but I have no skills in acting,’’ he is candid.

The accomplishments apart, the sport is filled with risks. As Santosh says, “The way I look at it, you can fall from a flight of stairs at home and get killed. However, on the roads, one has to be controlled because you end up killing others. Racing requires a lot of discipline. It is certainly not for junkies.”