“Go Slow and Plan Ahead”: Kunal Maini on Being A Professional Racer in India
Dreaming could be the best possible thing, but true peace is letting yourself breathe it into existence.
When I first came across Kunal Maini, it seemed like a very clear shot — when I told people I knew a real life racer in India, their first reaction was — he must be very rich. Our conversation began with him asking me to read one of his blogs on Medium. He had written something about the way racing makes him feel and strangely it was familiar to writing or traveling for me. Meeting somebody who had taken two steps ahead already was inspirational.
Applauding someone is good but collaborating to co-exist was what I could do better. So I mustered up my self-belief and pitched to him. Soon after, he opened up about his journey and more importantly, gave me an insider’s perspective of Motorsports in India, all it’s gory details personified. In the middle of it Kunal’s story as a professional racer, felt needed as if to hold the baton for anybody who was looking for a push.
I always wanted to get into Motorsports.
“In 2011, I learnt to drive my first car. I really wanted to try Motorsports because I found it difficult to come off the throttle”, said Kunal, threading down nostalgia.
He recalled how he had learnt the knack of cutting across the hardcore Delhi traffic. His love for speed further encouraged in him the possibility of pursuing racing professionally. Although he studied engineering, he could never relate to his profession. Ever since college he was on a quest to figure out what else he could be better at. He applied to several “race schools” (driver training academies in India and abroad) and realized the extent of expenses it involved. His parents told him that they wouldn’t even be able to afford a month’s training. So he gave up the idea and took up a 9–5 job as a software developer.
“I saw that a lot of things in life required money.”
His intention was to save up for later. He joined a trading firm called Futures First. “But that didn’t work out; I got fired after 8 months.” But in less than 10 days, he ended up in Paytm, surging in its own growth stage. But working with Paytm wasn’t fulfilling. Coding felt like a very compartmentalized role wherein he was restricted to do what was told. The lack of control was demotivating, he expresses.
By then it was 2017 and he felt monetarily equipped to begin his Motorsports career. “Now I have enough money to fund my first year of racing.”
But in another flip of fate, a serious injury got him bed-ridden for 6 months.
“When you want to do something unconventional and quit your stable job, you normally tend to not get into that.”
Kunal says that usually letting go of stability isn’t at all easy. It was his life-threatening injury that rather got him determined.
“When I went to the hospital, they told me that it could take a minimum of three months to walk again — that was it. The drive to get into Motorsports was so much that it helped me heal better.”
So while in the recovery stage, helped by his therapist, they would shoot the entire process in bits — about how much he wanted to race.
“So I quit my job and moved to Bangalore just like that.”
In Bangalore, he began with enrolling into a karting training program. “Karts are very unforgiving and if you make yourself good enough in karting, then switching to Formula cars is easy,” explains Kunal.
In his first Karting championship, despite being a rookie (racers with zero experience) he competed with experienced racers, which earned him a good rep with team owners and managers who invited him to take part in Formula Racing. This instant career jump required funds funds. So he got himself a job as a product manager, despite not having a professional degree and with just a natural ‘business acumen’ he explains!
“I wanted to get trained by these people who have a lot of experience.”
He decided to join India’s best team by paying, although other teams were offering him free drives. Meco Motorsports, Kunal says, is the country’s best team and the only Indian team to participate in Formula 3, the owner being an ex-Formula 3 champion. “I wanted to go with the team that had the best mechanics, best services they could provide and the best mentors,” he reasons.
He finished first on one of the races of the JK Tyre Novice Cup and it was a huge move. This earned him the position to drive in the last Round of the JK National Racing Championship at Buddh International Circuit. Hence in his first season, he got the chance to race with experienced racers who have been on the track since 5–12 years.
“You got to see how those people had better control on their cars.”
Season 2 began in March 2019 with the Formula Junior Racing Series where he managed a clean sweep win. He came 1st in 7 races out of 8 and scored 2nd place in 1. This earned him a ticket to the JK National Racing Championship, sponsored by M-Sports.
This year he aims to become the ‘rookie of the year’. “The first round of the JK Tyre National Championship 2019 has been really good because for the first time I am racing with experienced drivers. So I have the confidence to take my car the extra edge,” says Kunal.
“Once I am there inside the car, I just call my mom and tell her — mom, I am going to race.”
Talking about the safety standards of racing, Kunal says that risks are undoubtedly involved, but a racer’s priority is to give the best.
“It’s just you and the car, together. You become one entity.”
“The safety standards maintained by the Federation of Motorsports Clubs of India (FMCI) is good, “says Kunal. Every track has a race control room with officials monitoring the race keenly — looking for incidents if somebody is driving unsafe. Drivers who are flagged off are sometimes charged with heavy fines and race penalties. “If there is a minor incident on the tracks the yellow flag is out. That means whenever you cross a yellow flag, overtaking is not allowed and you have to be slow.”
He says that despite the safety measures provided by FMCI, the racers need to be trained too.
“Your references also need to be on point. You cannot just go into a race without training your reflexes.”
A driver’s reaction time needs to be on point, one cannot afford to get into incidents, otherwise the true spirit of racing is lost. He says that racers are thus very cautious about incidents. They race wheel to wheel, but they do not want to get into incidents because their priority is to finish the race.
Thus there is a strict selection procedure involved. It starts with limited seats. Such as the JK Tyre National Championship only allows 4 teams with 7 cars each to participate making it severely handpicked 26 racers. Teams select racers based on their training program which ensures a racer’s license. Many people before participating in the national championships, go for novice cups. “That way you learn race-craft better.”
“The things that I have learnt with speed-cubing is what I have been applying with racing.”
Along with being a racer, Kunal is also a champion speed-cuber and interestingly applies the same skill for both. He says how when one is solving the Rubik's cube, there is a need to be faster. The trick is thus to “go slow and look ahead”. If you are turning the cube slow — if you have already planned one move and you are implementing that — when you are implementing it slow, you can see the other pieces where they are moving, so that you can plan your next move. So basically when you go slow, you plan ahead.
Racing has taught Kunal consistency, “When if you are good, you need to be consistent.” He says that as a racer, you cannot afford to make mistakes. Even if one is the fastest on track, one single mistake on one track can allow another racer to easily overtake you.
“If a track has 12 corners, there are 3 things you need to do correctly at each corner. You need to break at the right point at the right pressure, the staring input should be fine, and third your throttling point should be progressive,” Kunal talks in racing jargon!
There are thousands of things that one needs to do correctly in a race, and that’s how you win a race.
“You have to push your car so much such that it is almost spinning but not spinning.”
The only way is practice, to maintain this consistency. It’s not about being the fastest, it’s about having a race-craft.
“A lot of decisions in Motorsports are taken by teams with respect to selection are based on how much money can you bring to the team.”
Motorsports is an expensive affair and its doesn’t shy away from being one of most monetarily pumped up sports. Kunal explains that it is legit. “The cost of Motorsports is justified, because a lot of money goes into renting out the cars, the fuel, the mechanics cost, the maintenance of the track, a lot of things.” So it is no secret that if only a racer is ready to put forth his/her own investment to certain extent, they are able to build a flourishing career.
“Only racers and their immediate family members are there to watch the races,” Kunal explains. Although Motorsports are presented as big in newspapers and magazines, there is a lack of visibility in terms of LIVE watching as in Cricket. This is because most people do not understand Motorsports due to lack of exposure.
“There are a lot of people out there who want to race, but there is lack of sponsorship, lack of visibility of the sport, lack of promotions, lack of marketing.”
If somebody wants to enter Motorsports, the first step is the training program that teams organize. Teams use social media to promote Motorsports. There is also an all-women’s team called “Ahura Racing”. Most of these female racers self-promote them on social media, which is a good traction for the sports visibility, he says. Teams are also particular about getting people who can be brand ambassadors.
He says that he is still trying to figure out a way to make Motorsports available to everybody. “Whatever path I take can pave the way for other racers in the future.”
