Slow in, fast out,” I mumble repeatedly as I manoeuvre the race car round the corner. Alisha Abdullah watches me through her aviators as I try following her instructions. The racer is now also a trainer. Earlier in the day, all geared up for a biking lesson with her, I was a tad disappointed when she turned up without her superbike. “But I have my race car. I could give you lessons in car racing,” she suggested and directed me to her car. She instructed me to strap up. “The first lesson is always about safety, learning the track and knowing what to do when things go out of control,” she said before I got to drive her car and learn terms such as ‘apex’, ‘ideal line’, ‘bottoming’...
The racer has just launched her eponymous racing academy to train women interested in the sport. “I’ll prepare them to ride geared bikes, scooters and cars. I have been racing with men for too long. Through this venture, I want to coach women and make racers out of them,” she says. So far the academy has received 25 registrations. Once the registration process is complete, the team at the academy will shortlist 80-100 applicants who will undergo training at the Irungattukottai race track. “Finally 25 girls will be selected, trained and sent for races. To start off, it will be with other women racers from within Asia. My team is currently going around colleges and educating students about the sport,” she says and adds, “I am a role model for many women and I knew I should start something to encourage them. The idea for this academy came to me three years ago.”
As a little girl, every time someone asked Alisha what she wanted as a gift, Hot Wheels would be the answer. She was equally fascinated with automobile parts, and as a result, automobile engineering was part of her plan. Though that didn’t happen, what did swing her way was success on the tracks. The country’s first female national racing champion, Alisha started with karting when she was eight. Kart Attack on ECR, is where it all began for her. “Once, while practising, my hair got pulled into the engine of the kart and it hurt my neck. They had to chop my hair off. I started crying. But my dad asked me to go back and drive again. That made me stronger. Over the years, I’ve hurt myself and fractured my bones but I learnt never to quit.” And these are qualities she hopes to instil in the army of women racers that she’s all set to create.
Racing is in her genes, she believes. Inspired by her father, R.A. Abdullah, also a racer, she would follow him to the tracks to watch him. “When I saw him win and finish on the podium, it inspired me to take up racing. The first time I rode a bike, it was a TVS Fiero. I was 15 then and I remember I fell,” she recalls. When she turned 18, her father gifted her a superbike. Numerous accolades were won and in 2010, it was time to shift gears again, and she moved to car racing. “I participated in the Volkswagen National Polo Championships, competed against men and became the first girl to finish second on the podium,” she says.
The 25-year-old is currently preparing for her next race in Bangkok. “I am practising on simulators, working out at the gym and in between all this shooting for my second Tamil film. It’s with Vijay Antony and is called Saitaan . It’s based on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo .”
Juggling careers isn’t a piece of cake. It takes a lot of hard work and perseverance, she admits. She hands me her phone and says, “Listen to this dialogue from the movie. I have been trying to memorise it and get it right. Can you read it?” I try reading aloud the sentence that sounds like a complicated tongue twister and she giggles, “You’re worse than me.” I give up. She doesn’t.
