India Bike Week: Harley-Davidson Conducts Flat Track Timed Trials
Harley-Davidson has had its presence at India Bike Week from the inception of the festival back in 2013. There has been a large demand from enthusiasts and members of the media to expand the sport of Flat Tracking in India and H-D went ahead to curate India’s first Flat Track Timed Trials at IBW in 2019.
For the uninitiated, Flat Track is a form of motorcycle racing that finds its origin in the early 1900’s in America. H-D has seen tremendous success over the course of the last century with the fabled XR750 being the undisputed Flat Track motorcycle for almost the better part of three decades. The races are held on oval dirt tracks where riders race against each other without any front brakes only using their skill to slide the rear tire to turn left into fast corners.
Over 500 registrations were received for the Time Trials where only 150 slots were available. Rajputana Custom Motorcycles prepared 4 Flat Track racers that were all based on Harley-Davidson Street Rods. Each racer was given four laps around the track set up specifically for the event at IBW. The best lap was counted and the contestants with the top 10 best lap times were invited to come back to the track to battle it out once again. Sanjay Kumar emerged the winner, closely followed by Abrar Bin Ayub and Dev Venkatesh.
Harley-Davidson also used this opportunity to launch the global Harley-Davidson Riding Academy for the first time in India, especially curated for the local market conditions. It will offer the skilled rider course through its 32 dealer locations in 2020 in partnership with Autocar, at unique venues. Expert instructors who have had special training on how to handle and ride a Harley-Davidson will be imparting their knowledge over both theory and practical classes. Detailed information on the schedule of the academy will be shortly made available on Harley-Davidson’s India social media handles. The first session will be held on 14th December 2019, in Mumbai.
Mr. Sajeev Rajasekharan, Managing Director, Harley Davidson India says, “India Bike Week is the only true motorcycle festival in the country that celebrates the genuine spirit of Motorcycling. It’s great to see different brands and genres of motorcycles and riders come together to engage with each other over a glorious weekend. Harley-Davidson has been proud to be a part of this great migration and we applaud the great work done by IBW to put this festival together. It’s exciting to see a wide variety of races this year and we are overwhelmed with the participation received for our Flat Track Time Trials. With motorcycles getting larger and more powerful year after year, it’s important to cultivate the right skill to be a confident rider.
