Aishwarya ready to blaze a trail in Dubai
dubai — Motorsport, traditionally, has for long been known as a men’s domain with the fairer sex looked at generally, either with disapproving eyes or for that matter, adding the glamour quotient, the pit girls, if you like.
But as we roll in the 21st century, times are changing and so are perceptions, more so in a country like India. A band of women are showing the passion and the need for speed, so to say, and are conquering what used to be strictly a male bastion.
And the likes of Alisha Abdullah, Garima Avtar, Mira Erda, the Dabas sisters — Neha and Ria, Sneha Sharma and Aishwarya Pissay are blazing a trail for women in motorsport.
And Aishwarya, who hails from the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, is on the threshold of adding more to her bludgeoning experience when she competes in the Dubai International Baja, the second round of this year’s FIA World Cup for Cross Country Bajas for cars and buggies and the opening round of FIM Bajas World Cup for bikes and quads, over the weekend.
The 23-year-old is the only women rider in the field and is eager to have another crack on the international stage after she had suffered horrific crash on debut in the Baja Aragon in Spain last year.
Dubai will mark only her second international appearance, and like a true biker, Aishwarya has picked herself up, dusted herself off and is back on the bike again.
“It is my second big international rally. Looking forward to a good finish,” Aishwarya, a National road racing and rally champion, said in an interview at the Dubai Autodrome on Wednesday.
“I’m looking forward to collecting the points and moving forward to the next round,” added Aishwarya, who will also be competing in the Baja Espana Aragon in July, Hungarian Baja in August and the Baja de Portalegre 500 in Portugal in October.
Fully backed by TVS Racing, all this part of the learning curve for Aishwarya, who dreams of competing in the Dakar Rally, the most grueling rally in the world.
“All these rallies that I am doing is a stepping stone to gather a lot more experience to be able to participate on an international platform. I’m looking at doing Dakar in a couple of years,” said Aishwarya, who won the Ladies category and finished fourth in her class in the 2017 Raid de Himalaya, the highest rally raid in the world.
Aishwarya, whose inspiration is city mate CS Santosh, a multiple National Supercross and Motocross champion who has represented India on the world stage, is thankful for the support from her folks.
“They are quite proud of what I do. They support me with all my endeavours. I think all families are apprehensive about doing something out of the box but when things starting falling in place, they were ok,” she said.