Car racer triumphs with never-say-die spirit

The 31-year old passionate racing driver had to overcome bone deformity in his legs as the bones below the knees were not formed in the right way when he was born. He made adaptation his weapon. He did not wish to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair while talking about other people’s success stories. He took up the challenge by using synthetic limbs and never used clutches.

Like other kids, Chetan started walking but only with severe pain and bleeding, and yet did not like to show his weakness. Being a sports lover, playing basketball tennis and even a lot of running were what he liked most. His main source of inspiration was his mother Padma, who supported Chetan since the time he was a toddler. Herself passionate about driving cars, she noticed her son’s inclination towards toy cars.

His mother taught him to drive and allowed him to nurse racing ambitions too. Being a car racer was something beyond expectation for the boy; “My prosthetics were part of me, and when I sat in the racing car, I was a perfect fit,” Chetan shared cheerfully.

He also supported himself and family with the direct marketing business QNET, “initially I paid my way through motor sports,” he said while talking about the high expenses even to start a career as a racer in go-karting. “When I started, it was around Rs 1.5 lakh minimum, but today it has gone up to around '5 lakhs at least. However, I was lucky to get sponsors throughout my racing career.”

Since the age of 20, he began to focus on racing as his career although he pursued audio engineering for graduating. He also had in mind becoming a Disc Jockey as a career option since 2002. Eventually, Chetan came to be in touch with the Madras Motor Sports Club and its race track. He debuted in national level racing in Round 2 of JK Tyre national racing championship.

In 2009, his official introduction to trainer and mentor Akbar Ebrahim (present president of FMSCI) got Chetan professionally into racing. ‘Akku’ got Chetan introduced to the Formula BMW-series.  In 2009, he won five races and was second once in six races during the MMSC Summer Cup Champion 2009 (Class-FISSME).

“The year 2011 was a memorable one, which gave me a complete boost”, shared the racer as he finished in first place in Round 4 in the JK Tyre FMSCI national racing championship (Class-Formula LGB Swift 1300cc). He finished first out of 23 competitors, starting from 12thon the grid. He also finished as the runner-up in the Senior category in the Kart 1 Racing series the same year and started dreaming for higher and higher. In 2015, he got into Formula MRF 1600, adapting to its demands and in 2017 he finished as Runner-up in Formula MRF 1600 FMSCI National Racing Championship.

When the Kilpauk-resident racer started his  career, he was the only Asian and the second car racer in the world with prosthetic legs after the Italian ‘Formula One’ (F1) driver Alex Zanardi. However, Chetan is still the world’s only car racing winner with artificial legs and also the only one who drives a regular race-prepared car without any custom-made modifications as Chetan doesn’t like depending on technology on his physique. Currently he is one among four differently-abled car racers in the world.

Chetan is now preparing to make his debut in the international racing circuits in 2018 with support from QNet, starting with Formula Masters Testing Programme at Malaysia from June. As one of his ongoing plans, he is eying the MRF International Challenge from November to February 2019, taking place in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and the finals in India (Chennai). Expert physical conditioning coach Ramji Srinivasan of QLP sports has been tuning his mental and physical conditioning and to get his muscles to be more active and fit for the trials to represent the country on the international circuit.  That is a small challenge for one who has beaten his disability to succeed.