In a historic moment for Indian motorsport, Shreya Iyer became the first Indian woman to be competing in the National Rally Championship. The 24-year-old from Bengaluru was signed by rally team TVS Racing to take part in the two wheeler National Rally Championship.
Shreya will ride in the Group B category of rallying riding the Apache RTR 200 model bike. The championship is scheduled to begin with its first round in Bengaluru. Her team-mates for the six round championship will include last year’s overall national champion KP Arvind, AW Tanveer and R Natraj.
Speaking of her will to work hard and her passion for riding, Shreya said, “I’m very passionate about riding, and it’s great to be able to do that professionally. Training has been good so far, and I intend to give it my best. I’ve been working hard, and this is just the beginning,”
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Admitting that it would be her first competitive event, she spoke of her prior biking experience saying, “This is my first competitive event. Recently, I rode the dunes in Dubai. I did lots of travelling in the north and south, and the Himalayas. I’ve done mainly off-roading and cross country events,”
Since she has not taken part in any rallying events yet, she admits that it has been a massive learning curve for her. She says, “Rallying is a race against time, and that’s the only tricky part. I’m running some trials, practising and getting an idea as to how a rally works. So, it’s a huge learning curve,”
The 24-year-old said she learnt how to ride at the age of seventeen. Describing it as a liberating experience, she explained, “It almost came naturally to me. I just took a friend’s motorcycle for a ride. I had no coaching or anything. Since then, I’ve been hooked to it. For me, motorcycling is liberating. I wouldn’t like it if someone was going to curb that.”
Shreya denied the notion that motorsport was a male dominated field saying that there were many women who were participating in such rallies throughout the country. She stated that she hoped to break such stereotypes by becoming the first female rally rider in the country.
TVS Racing has a 33-year-old history of progress in the field of motorsport. The team participated in the Dakar Rally in 2015 becoming the first Indian team to do so. The association of TVS and influences of experienced riders like Championship winner KP Arvind will hold Shreya in good stead and help her enhance her skills.
