"Racing is a reflection of what TVS engineering and R&D stands for" - Vimal Sumbly on TVS' strive for gender equality, the influence of MotoGP & more
TVS Motor Company recently conducted its inaugural racing championship exclusively for TVS Apache owners at the Madras International Circuit (erstwhile Madras Motor Race Track) in Chennai.
The TVS ARE GP Cup, as it is officially called, gave TVS Apache owners a chance to get a taste of racing in a safe and secure environment, with all the rules and regulations of professional racing in play. Despite the hot and humid conditions, enthusiasts took to the track all day across various categories (160cc-180cc, 200cc, 310cc) to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
As the event successfully wrapped up, Vimal Sumbly, Head of Business, Premium, was in an understandably upbeat mood. For him, this was another feather in the company's cap to celebrate. After becoming the first Indian manufacturer to participate in the Dakar Rally, they launched the One Make Championship and a championship for women, among other things in recent years.
Vimal, in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, spoke about the role TVS played in the growth of Indian motorsports, their efforts in bringing gender equality, how MotoGP could influence the Indian racing landscape, and more.
Excerpts:
On TVS's role in Indian motorsports: If you look at India today, there are go-kart tracks everywhere, even in small cities like Ahmednagar, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar, and others. These are proper breeding grounds. We are trying to create small racing forms through go-karts. When their parents see that their kids can learn with a machine very well, ride very well and the kind of training we provide...
This competitiveness will fuel the next set of adrenaline. We see good growth in motorsports, it’s not just TVS that has been doing motorsports, we can slowly see other companies getting into it.
On why TVS got into motorsports: As a company, our core philosophy is to democratize racing. Why racing? Because we are an engineering company. We have the best of R&D [Research and Development]. This is what we feel proud of. How can you say you have a good R&D or you are a good engineering company? It is when you race. So for us, racing is a reflection of what TVS engineering and R&D stands for. And through this, we get a lot of technologies out of it.
On how racing influenced innovations in TVS' commercial vehicles: As you know, we recently launched RTR 310. We got RTDSC into it, which is Race Tuned Dynamic Stability Control. We have climate control seats on our motorcycles. We brought a bi-directional quick-shifter. Now where do these things pop out from? These pop out from our racing, our continuous improvement in racing. Race-tuned machines are completely different than the stock ones and this helps us to build our stock bikes to these levels.
On looking beyond the big cities in their search for talent: Initially, when we started the Apache Racing Experience (ARE) program, it was more focused on metros because we thought people in metros are more educated, have more money to experiment with and willingness to be part of motorsports would be very, very large. Then we realized as we saw our Apache sales, they have been happening around tier one, tier two, and even tier three customers.
We decided to have the ARE in 20 cities across the country — tier one, two, and three. So 20 cities and 1000-plus plus participants. Today I can happily tell you there is no difference between the urban, rural, tier 1, tier 2, and others. Riding is the same, racing is the same. It is a sheer pleasure to say that talent has hit even tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Which was, probably a few years back, difficult to imagine!
On TVS' success in racing: Within India, in all championships (road or rally) run by FMSCI (the governing body for motorsports in India), we are winning almost 85 to 90 percent of the podiums. Now, when we compete in India, it's not only TVS is competing with TVS, right? There are other competitive players and within them we are doing very very well, I would say that. To that extent, we have made a huge leap.
On TVS' strive towards gender equality in motorsports: We do this woman racing championship which we have put a lot of emphasis on. Now we are increasing the number of cities we'll go to for participation. I enjoy watching these strong girls maneuvering, being competitive, and lifting this bike around a turn. It is something phenomenal. I'm very proud to say that we are the only OEM [Original Equipment Manufacturer] to have a women's factory racing team, nobody else in the world has it.
And it's not easy. There's investment, training, the environment we need to create, and more. You can get a racer to participate once, but what do you do with them for 12 months? And will they stay with you for those 12 months? So there's a huge program of training, motorcycle riding, building up the bikes, giving them opportunities to get trained outside India, supporting them, and so on. It is a very holistic program we run.
On India getting added to the MotoGP calendar: Our country is very strong on motorcycling. They are connected with it to a larger extent than to Formula 1 because everybody or everyone, even with a 50cc [bike] wants to race. I see it as a very good platform for people to look up to and prepare themselves. With Moto GP coming [to Delhi], it's a perfect platform for youngsters to come up.
On how MotoGP could help TVS: It will help companies like TVS. All I can tell you is racing brings a lot of safety, at the same time. When you talk about talk about tennis, football, or cricket coaching, what do these coaching centers do?
They bring the discipline of proper gear and fitness to the table, which is not there when you play on the streets. Organized coaching brings another element of safety. I'm very optimistic that all these will bring safety to the forefront, which our country needs.