Indian motorsport's first 'lambi race ka ghoda'

AHMEDABAD: 24-year-old Aditya Patel will on May 20 become the first Indian to drive in one of the big five 24-hour races of the endurance racing circuit. He will participate in the 24-hour Nurburgring race. This was assured when he was signed by Audi India last month as a driver.
Patel's preparation began when he drove in the four-hour race of the VLN endurance series on April 14 at Merzenich in Germany to get experience of endurance racing. Nurburgring race, Le Mans, Daytona, Dubai and Spa are the grand slam events of the endurance racing calendar. Patel will also compete in the legendary 24 hours of Le Mans race later in the season.
Incidentally, Patel narrowly pips the more famous Karun Chandhok to the title of the first Indian to drive in a 24-hour race. Chandhok is also slated to drive in the Le Mans 24-hour race, but since the Nurburgring race is scheduled earlier, Patel will become the first Indian to do so. In 2009, Narain Karthikeyan participated in the 1000 km race at Spa which was part of the Le Mans series but couldn't compete in the Le Mans race after dislocating a shoulder.
"Ever since I began racing and learned how things work in this area, it was my dream to sign up with a manufacturer," says the BA economics graduate of Loyola College in Chennai.
On what has brought him this far, Patel says, "I would say my biggest strength is my patience. It may seem ironic but to be a good driver means choosing the right time to make a move and exploiting an opportunity in the best way possible once it presents itself."
Patel started 'driving' when he was three years old, after a psychologist found that he could be bordering on dyslexia and advised the family to find ways to get him to focus on one thing. As his father Kamlesh Patel had a long career in motorsports, he got him a go-kart. "His first ever word was 'helmet,'" says the senior Patel.
The Patel family has a great pedigree in motorsport. Patel's great grandfather N P Patel, a civil engineer, moved to Madras from Baroda in 1928 to work with a British construction firm Jackson, Barker & Co. Patels' ancestral home in Limbda Pol was till very recently still with the family. N P Patel started his own construction company. His son Suresh Patel, who also joined the construction company, was one of the pioneers of racing in India and was a founder member of the Federation of Motorsports Clubs of India.
Kamlesh Patel inherited this interest in motorsports. "I too joined the construction business," says Kamlesh who now runs a performance automotive service station. "We had a workshop to maintain various company cars and construction vehicles. I took charge of the workshop. So I was always more of a gearhead than into construction. I have raced with the famous Nazir Hoosein and Mohinder Lalwani. In fact, in my first race, in what was then an almost stock Ambassador car with seatbelts fitted, it was against G N Karthikeyan, Narain's father."