Inaugural KTM RC Cup: What Is It Like To Race The RC390 At MMRT

You know, oddly enough, it's almost always sunny at the race track. Rarely are you riding under the covers of heavenly shade. If you are, then you're about to embrace the slippery grip of rain. And rain can scare you silly when you're chasing speed. The KTM RC 390 isn't scary though and the new one's so well-mannered compared to the old one I used to own. All that speed should be palatable, or so I thought. But the thing is, ”speed”... it just hits differently on a race track.

My last race outing was at the TVS Young Media Racer Program (YMRP) spread over three weekends. This weekend, however, was about the inaugural KTM RC Cup organised at MMRT, Chennai and all my best mates from the auto journo world were attending. KTM was organising a race for us media folks and I had a few good reasons to go. 

Firstly, it was the second consecutive weekend where Manaal (my bud from work) and I were racing each other for shits and giggles. Bonus - the dude who inspired me to join this profession – Sagar Sheldekar – was coming too. Shit, even the pesky Karan Singh was coming, with some old unsettled score from our YMRP race I'm sure. So, this weekend was about a fast bike and friends going around a loop as fast as they can. Fun!

Surprisingly, given the RC Cup was a private event and not squeezed in-between national championships like YMRP is, the pits looked packed. After all, KTM rallied 80 properly fast guys from around the country via multiple selection rounds and gave them fast bikes to go around a circuit as fast as they dared. And some guys dared alright! The stakes weren't as high as they would be for the title of ”National Champion” but the winners do get to go to Austria, enjoy a deeper dive into the world of KTM and watch a MotoGP race with “VVIP” level access. And oh! They also got personal one-on-one time with Jeremy McWilliams, ex-GP racer. Really nice dude! 

We journos had our own little squabble sandwiched in-between the real battle for the crown. So what? Us media folk take our racing seriously too! Like my mate Janak, who deceived me all weekend by acting tired and uninterested, only to whip out a smashing qualifying time and come third in the race. I shall not forget this Janak!

Look, I can't possibly tell you more about these new second-generation KTM RC 390s than what you already know. If you've missed it, here's the review. Hand on heart, if I was riding my first-generation, 2015 RC 390, I'd have killed myself at least four times. These new ones are SO forgiving. Heck, the brakes are so good, I didn't even know the ABS wasn’t present, I would've gone softer on the lever, man! However, what many complained about and I too concur were the tyres – Metzeler Sportec M5s H-rated, and not the lovely W-rated. What's the difference? Grip, lots of it. Enough to make you wanna push just a bit more, every time.

We were out on track for two days. On day one, we had two more-than-decent 20 minute sessions out on the track. Track time like this is a privilege, but it can quickly feel like torture in Chennai's heat and humidity. Hence, I admire these kids who were there, they didn't care if it was hot, humid, or hell fire outside. When it was time to go, they’d just go for it relentlessly, for passion, to chase what they love: thrill of speed. We found our pace too. Slowly, but surely. Initially, most of us were all over the place, just about getting the hang of the bike and its free-revving nature. Most of us were registering between 2m 10s and 2m 20s lap times. Meanwhile, Sagar, Vikrant Singh and Deepak Vishnu (Clutchless on Instagram) were comfortably sitting at lap times of 2m 06s around MMRT. 

Amidst all this, there was I, blinded by my own sweat, squinting in my helmet with salty eyes crying out "this is so much faster than last time, and scarier too." What was unfathomable was how much of the RC 390 I hadn’t understood despite owning the previous generation model. All it took was a race track to open my eyes. Suddenly the motorcycle became bigger than what I knew I could do on a track. It’s daunting to race with that feeling having sunk in your heart. I wasn't slow, I knew I'd put up a chase when called on, but I also knew winning was out. So what remained was an opportunity to learn.  

Day two was clear. Practice and qualifying in the sweltering afternoon heat and final race post lunch. And on Sunday, us media boys were all fired up to go for it and you know what's the funnest part of pushing hard and finding limits? You understand a lot of concepts which you already possess. They’re there, in our minds, sitting passively, waiting to be understood with the help of the right stimulus. It's followed by the famous ”aaah..." moment when the known becomes apparent. 

Funny how something as silly as riding a bike around a loop fast can teach you about fundas of life. I kept thinking about this the whole time inside my helmet - like, we actually know it all but we don't always understand it.  For example, I know how to ride this RC390, I even know how to go around a track fast thanks to a lot of accumalated knowledge from books and videos watched on Youtube. Where I am falling short of using it to my advantage, to win this race, is the understanding and application of those skills.

This weekend I understood that knowledge can be found and obtained in passive ways. But the power of knowledge is in understanding it. To obtain that power you must seek it actively, and in motorsports- it must be done in a very active and alert state. Sounds uncomfortable given our lifestyle but the outcome of the discomfort is learning. In the pits, everywhere I’d look, there were kids fit like crossfit athletes, mentally fortified like monks, living and breathing the sport.

For me personally, this weekend didn't feel like a race as much as an extremely valuable track day. A track day where most of us would slip in and out of the racer’s mentality. In that fleeting headspace, my RC 390 GP Edition and I would have conversations. Discussions on - attacking certain corners differently, braking later here and letting the tail slip there. By race time all 16 of us were in line, in front of the flashing red lights to give it one final push, and push we did!

Lights out and the pack charges down the main straight into C1 – a corner I like to call the leap of faith – it’s a sweeping fast righthander where hesitation isn’t your friend. This track is beautifully technical and flowing that by the third corner (C3) the pecking order was in place. The forerunners included the fast boys – Sagar, Vikrant, Clutchless, Janak and Karan Singh. So proud of how fearlessly he (Karan Singh) rode this weekend. Behind them was group two in which I tussled with Azaman and Soham, and behind us was another group having their own little face-off. 

Five laps went by in a flash and in isolation felt too short. But when I look back at the weekend as a whole, the KTM RC Cup 2023 was an experience which I truly believe should be a year-round property. That motorcycle, KTM’s experience in racing, MMRT’s assertive assortment of corners and India’s increasingly growing penchant for motorsports could get the fuel it needs! 

Just a thought KTM, instead of squeezing it all in one weekend, why not take a leaf out of Royal Enfield’s book and make it more of an opportunity for noobs and amateurs also to have a fighting chance for glory. Because as much as I am a fan of the dedicated track warriors, lighting that fire in those who have never raced can be truly something gratifying. Not to mention, it might just unearth some budding talent too. 

Also, better rubber next time please!