New Delhi, Nov 12 (IANS) Indian racer Jeet Jhabakh reflected on winning the historic FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship title as he etched his name into the history books. Jeet, 34, and co-driver Musa Sherif, 55, became the first all-Indian driver and co-driver pair to win the overall APRC title, finishing with 73 points from the three rounds held this season, as the China round was cancelled.
Jeet, who made his international debut this season, also defied convention by becoming the first driver in the 38-year history of the FIA APRC to win the title in a two-wheel-drive car, a feat never before achieved.
Speaking to IANS exclusively, Jeet opened up about his achievement in his first international season, admitting that the feeling of the win has not yet sunk in and that his victory has rightly raised the ceiling in Indian motorsport.
“Honestly, I don’t know whether it’s still sunken fully; it is something that I honestly didn’t expect to get in such a short duration of my rallying career,” Jeet told IANS.
“I’ve been in motorsport for a while, but rallying has hardly been two years for me; this is my third full year. We went international, and it kind of clicked for us, so I’m very grateful for this overall experience, and for Indian motorsport, I think the ceiling moved, which is very interesting,” he added.
Jeet also believed that Indian motorsport is not short on talent and that it was unfortunate that India does not have many titles in rally racing. “We have a lot of great drivers, and there is no dearth of drivers in India, but unfortunately, we don’t have too many international titles, which is very weird to me, but this win of ours kind of sets the trail blaze a little bit for everyone, and they realise that it is possible even for somebody who is fairly new into this discipline of motorsport, it is possible to go out there and win a continental title.
“So I’m just hoping that even if there are a few children or youngsters out there who are looking at this title of ours and, you know, going like I would like to try my hand at this, I think we have done a decent job in putting India up there with the rest of the countries, so I’m quite glad,” he added.
Jeet defied the convention that only four-wheel-drive cars win the APRC by winning his title in a two-wheel-drive car. Speaking on this, Jeet explained that his first aim was to win the 2WD class rather than focus too much on the overall title. But when he was in the championship mix, he wanted to have a clean drive in the third round in Indonesia.
“Up until now, I believe that I’ve been told all the cars have been won, like all the championships have been won in a 4WD car, right, and we managed to do it in a 2WD. I honestly didn’t think about it too much. For us, it was very clear: we just wanted to go out there, give our best, keep it clean, not make mistakes, and bring the car home; that was the whole agenda.
“Even though, as athletes, we want to win the entire thing always, we also have to have milestones. For me, my main milestone in this championship was to win the class, a 2WD class win in the RC4. But as the championship progressed and we saw that we were up there in the mix with everybody for one reason or another, we were in Indonesia, we were very clear: okay, let’s just bring the car home clean; there is an absolutely great chance for us to win the overall title.
“So I’m glad we did that, motorsport usually doesn’t always go to plan, so it just happened to work out for us, so I’m quite happy that we got it there,” he added.
Jeet began his racing journey with circuit racing and became the Junior champion of the salon car racing championship in 2016. He is also a two-time National Racing Champion. Jeet switched from circuit to rally racing only a couple of years back.
Circuit racing requires greater precision, as drivers race on closed, permanent paved loops or road courses while completing a set number of laps. Rally racing is a point-to-point race run on public roads and forest tracks, on surfaces such as gravel, dirt, snow, and ice.
Speaking about the two different types of racing, Jeet detailed his transition from circuit racing to rally. “I think yeah, that was like the biggest learning curve for me, just like me, there were a lot of other athletes who have come from circuit racing to rallying. I’m sure they felt the same.
“In circuit racing, the corner doesn’t move, right? Everywhere you keep braking at the same point, you turn in at the same point, it’s all about precision; in rallying, the corner does move, it is a small change in the terrain, you know, changes everything, the way you brake, the way you handle the car, everything changes.
“So it was difficult, but I was happy to take the challenge on. Instead of just refining as we did in circuit racing, I learned to read and adapt, so that kind of added a skill set to my entire driving ability, so I’m hoping that after a tenure in circuit, when I move to rallying, I learn a few things over here and whatever things I go into next, I’m able to accumulate all of these traits and become a better driver,” the 34-year-old said.
He also opened up about his next goals, wanting to compete in the FIA World Rally Championship while keeping the door open to circuit racing until he has the pace in him. “So I would like to definitely go one step higher, and that comes World Rally Championship, but again here also, you are going to be driving with the absolute best of the world, and that’s my hope and dream.
“But again, money is definitely required, so we are talking to a lot of people, sponsors and whatnot to figure out how we can join hands together and take the step forward; that’s the rallying side of it.
“In racing as well, as I said, we are negotiating with a couple of people to figure out how I can get back onto the international racing scene. My heart belongs in both places; that’s the unfortunate bit. I don’t want to give up either yet, until I have the speed or the pace; I don’t want to look back. The day I don’t, I would like to graciously move aside and hope that I can get somebody who still has the pace up there,” he added.
–IANS
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