Sarika Sehrawat (28), acclaimed as India’s most famous woman car racer and rallying enthusiast, is poised to make a comeback on the racing/ rallying circuit after a break of nearly two years due to a freak accident. Now happily married to Arush Vohra, an automobile engineer with whom she has promoted a car modification and performance enhancing company, Sehrawat is all set to participate in the Great Desert Rally scheduled to be flagged off next February.

Sehrawat made a spectacular entry into the male dominated world of motor racing and car rallying in 2001, by winning the women’s title in the Raid de Himalaya and Great Desert Rally twice consecutively. “Right from my school days at Manav Sthali School in Delhi where I was into horse riding and skating, the thrill of speed pushed me to cycles, motorbikes and finally motor sport,” says Sehrawat. A business graduate of Delhi’s Fore School of Management, she quit several corporate jobs to concentrate on motorsports. But lack of corporate sponsorship has prevented her from realising her dream of driving in international events.

“Organised motorsports is neglected in north India as there are no practice tracks. Besides the only major sponsor of motorsports, the Chennai-based MRF Ltd has concentrated its events in the south. I was briefly sponsored by JK Tyres and was a member of its motor racing team. But JK Tyres suddenly withdrew from motorsports in 2004,” says Sehrawat.

Having survived the school of hard knocks, the young rally driver has acquired considerable knowledge and insights about this esoteric sport. According to her though motorsports is unsupported right now, its status is set to transform for the better as mindsets change in the new more prosperous world. But she cautions aspirants this is a capital intensive vocation and without corporate and institutional support it’s an expensive proposition.

That’s the advice Sehrawat is practicing instead of merely preaching, as she readies to re-enter the sport — now her vocation — with a bang.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)