A brief history of (motorcycle racing standard)
A brief history of (motorcycle racing standard)
When it comes to India, the sport has not developed as much as it has in some other countries. But the history of motorcycle racing in India also goes quite far back. Now, not a lot of that history is documented but there are some people who are willing to acquaint one with it. One of those people is G Subash Chandra Bose or Bullet Bose as he is fondly known. There cannot be a better person to go to than someone who dominated motorcycle racing here in India, in all of his 4 decade log career from the late 1960s to mid-1990s.
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Bose sir started racing in 1967, dominated motorcycle racing in the country till he voluntarily retired in 1994. Such was the scale of his dominance that he won 2 MICO Rolling Trophies. This trophy was awarded to a racer who won for 3 consecutive years and he won two! Another example of his dominance would be the fact that he won every race between 1974 and 1994, he never came in the second place but the first, every time!
At the time when Bose sir was still a young lad, Sholavaram was the place, if not THE place for motorsport action in India. As told by Bose sir, every first Sunday of the month of February was a RACING day in Chennai. All the roads lead to Sholavaram and the fever ran so high that the city bus service had special buses to and from the race track in Sholavaram which was some 25 kms from the city of Chennai. Even the rickshaw pullers were aware of these races at Sholavaram! It was rather surprising to know of such craze for motosport in our country and that too in the 1960s.
Sholavaram was an abandoned World War II airfield. When it was turned into a track for racing, what came out was a T-shaped track. It had the runs marked by bales of hay, which also served as run-off barriers. The concrete surface, paved for aircrafts, gave respectable grip for racing but cross-winds were a challenge, even more so at race speeds. And since racing was such a rage, it had to have viewer stands, which were made out of bamboo poles. According to Bose sir, the crowd would swell to 50,000 or more in the heyday of racing there! The track was host to all kinds of races, from cars to mopeds to scooters to 100 Bhp motorcycles like the Yamaha TZ 350
