I want to compete at Dakar in the next three years, says motorcycle racer Aishwarya Pissay
Aishwarya Pissay has won seven championships in Raid de Himalaya, Dakshin Dare, and Indian National Rally Championship, among others. And now, she plans to concentrate for the iconic Dakar Rally.
Motorcycle racing in India is still at a very nascent stage in 2020. While several levels of national championships and the entry of international racing formats like Asia Road Racing Championship in India has helped closed-circuit racing become popular in the country, rallying is still trying to find a foothold. And, Aishwarya Pissay, a 24-year-old rally rider from Bengaluru, is breaking stereotypes one step at a time.
Last year, Aishwarya became the first Indian to win a world title in motorsports by clinching the FIM Baja World Cup in women’s category. Participating in all the four rounds, she scored the maximum points in the women’s category to win the title.
In an exclusive interaction with AutoStory, Aishwarya tells us about her racing career, her racing mantra, and her plans for 2020.
Recounting early days
Aishwarya was part of MTV India’s second season of ‘Chasing the Monsoon’ in 2014, a reality TV competition in which participants rode from Gujarat to Meghalaya for 24 days. She says, “Acting on camera is more difficult than racing. I love racing and I think that’s my second nature, so it is much easier for me to race than being in front of a camera.”
She experienced riding in a closed-circuit racing for the first time with Apex Racing in 2015. In the following two years in 2016 and 2017, she won in the women’s category of Raid de Himalaya, as well as the Indian National Rally Championship in 2017 and 2018.
TVS factory rider Aishwarya says that right backing and support has helped her career develop as a professional motorcycle racer. She says, “Starting with Apex, racing was a result of passion, but over some time, I started winning championships. It got different for me when TVS Racing signed me and made racing, a career for me and not just passion.”
“I wanted to get better with circuit racing, and hence, I started training with off-roading. I started doing a bit of both and then by 2016, I started focussing on off-roading. Everybody has been very supportive. They have seen me grow from being an underdog to now a champion. I come from a background where nobody in my family races,” she adds.
Never giving up
Motorsports is a risky business and injuries become a part of life. One of the greatest American race car driver Mario Andretti once said, “If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.”
As a rally champion, Aishwarya has had her fair share of crashes. However, she understands they are part of the racing experience. She recounts, “In 2017, I broke my collar-bone mid-season during training in August. I was leading in the championships, both on-road and off-road, however, just five days after the incident, I was back to racing and went on to win the championship the same year.”
The very next year, in 2018, she marked her entry to the international rally raid championship Baja – the very series that got her the title in 2019. However, Aishwarya had another major crash where she ruptured her pancreas. It was another two to three months before she could get back on a motorcycle. The accident did leave her with a mental block, but with taking baby steps, she managed to get away from the trauma of the crashes.
“These crashes made me tougher. I firmly believe in the saying – what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger – and the two crashes have helped me evolve mentally, as well as physically. They have given me the tolerance to deal with whatever comes my way,” she says.
In another incident during the Raid de Himalaya, Aishwarya crashed and damaged her gear lever. Consequently, she had to shift gears manually and ride for 20 km to the end of the stage.
She says, “Despite the cold, my ride was going well when I had the crash. My gear lever got jammed and the only way I could move it was with my hands. It was one of the most memorable rides of my career. All I could think of was reaching the finishing point which would mean I could finish the day’s stage.”
The idea behind rallying is similar to Herbert Spencer’s famous phrase of ‘survival of the fittest’. Aishwarya adds, “Rallying is a lot about the survival of people who can fix things in the shortest amount of time and keep moving. It is an intense format of touring in more difficult landscape and tests not just the rider, but also the machine along with your ability to deal with problems on the go.”
Plans for 2020 and beyond
After winning last year’s trophy at Baja World Championship, Aishwarya intends to go back and earn the laurels for her, as well as for India once again. Unlike 2018 and 2019, which had three and four rounds respectively, the 2020 Baja World Championship will have six gruelling rounds.
The first of these is slated to start on March 27 in Portugal, followed by a round in Dubai (April 2 to April 4), and Jordan (April 16 to April 18). The fourth and the fifth rounds will take place in Spain (July 23 to July 25) and Hungary (August 13 to August 16), respectively. The sixth and the final round of the 2020 Baja World Championship will see the riders head back to Portugal (October 29 to October 31) again.
The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), added Jordan and second Portugal round to this year’s championship to make the Baja World Cup more action-packed and tougher than the previous years.
However, Aishwarya has no plans to get back to closed-circuit racing anytime soon. “I don’t have enough time to train for both the formats. For rallying, I need to train a lot, and to do that, I have to travel a lot more which is why I am choosing to stick to rallying,” adds Aishwarya. She wishes to reach the iconic Dakar Rally within the next three years.
This is the first time that TVS Racing has entered the Asia Road Racing Championship. She says, “I haven’t even though about it (ARRC). My goal is Dakar, and I am going to focus on it for a while. Also, it’s not just about getting to Dakar; once I get there, I want to perform better and better each year.”
Message for budding racers
Motorsports remains a niche form of sports in a developing economy like India. However, the sport has come a long way since then, with manufacturers like TVS, Honda, and Suzuki backing young riders and giving them the taste of motorsports action with their ‘one-make racing’ programmes.
She adds, “Take the first step and follow your dreams. Even if you do not know the next 10 steps, just take the first one. Believe in yourself and do not let the naysayers stop you.”
(Edited by Suman Singh)