Young Indian racer ready to scorch tracks in Europe

The Vadodara girl has put Indian racing on the global racing map once again after becoming the first Indian female driver to compete in one of the highest classes of Formula Racing after signing up for the Euro JK series in the upcoming JK Tyre- FMSCI National Racing Championship. 

Mira took to racing in 2008, when her father started a go kart track. “My father wanted to be an avid racer but unfortunately he couldn’t pursue a career in the sport. After going to the go kart track a couple of times, I fell in love with racing and speed and he offered to support me if I wanted to take up the sport seriously,” Mira said. 

Mira’s first tryst with professional racing came in 2010 when she accompanied her father to Pune for a national championship. “When I saw there was no female racer on the circuit, I badly wanted to be one among the boys. That’s when I started taking the sport seriously,” she added.

Mira began with rallies and moved to the LGBT class and started participating in national meets. The racer said it was not a cakewalk to begin with. “It was difficult to make inroads into a male-dominated sport. There was a lot of male ego. The boys used to try and push me off the track and were not happy with the fact that there was a girl who was trying to encroach their ‘territory’. Even my trainer initially never used to be serious as I was a girl. But as time progressed, these issues gave me the motivation and now the fellow racers have accepted me and are familiar with my strengths and weaknesses. We now have fun competing against each other,” she explained. 

The 12th standard student is now excited to test unknown waters in Europe. “I am excited to be the first female racer in the Euro series. I am happy and excited and I do feel a bit of pressure. There are a lot of expectations from me but I know I must make sure not to be weighed down by it. I am steadily moving out of my comfort zone and working on my strength and stamina to succeed in Europe,” Mira added. 

Although this would be a big move for Mira from the LGBT class to the BMW class, Mira is making sure to leave no stone unturned to train well. “I had a short stint in Malaysia last month to get a hands-on experience on how the BMW cars behave. It has a different gearbox from the LGBT ones and I drove the car in various environments (rain, shine, etc) to get used to it. The sessions have gone well and it has boosted my confidence a lot,” Mira concluded.