Sneha Sharma discovered that car racing was her first love when she was 16 years old. But it then seemed so unreal and dream-like. Her parents, too, opposed her from taking up car racing, pleading that it was a dangerous sport. The social milieu was also not conducive to car racing for the fairer sex, as the sport was considered a male bastion.
However, with so many wins in her belt, 29-year-old F4 racer Sneha is not only living her dreams, but marking new milestones in her exciting career graph that is on the rise. Today, she is proud to be India’s fastest woman F4 racer.
Sneha shuffles between her roles as a commercial airlines pilot and a car racer. She is successful both as a pilot and a car racer. But car racing is, undoubtedly, her first love.
You wouldn’t believe it, but it is true that Sneha secured her flying and racing licences before she got her car driving licence. Her racing passion began with racing against her friends on a gear-equipped sports cycle.
She flies the Airbus 320 for six days a month and the remaining period is consumed in Formula 4 racing. Sponsored by JK Tyres and Indigo, she has participated in more than 40 international events.
Sneha discovered that her passion, her first love, was racing when she was just 16 years old. After coming across a go-karting track in Powai, Mumbai, she gave her passion a shot. And hurray! She had zipped through with the fastest lap time in her very first attempt.
In school, she would skip breakfast so that she could save time to pursue her passion. Then in Class 11, studying science, she spent a good part of her pocket money in building her racing skills at the Powai track, and requested professional racers to train her as well. They were not always cooperative. In fact, her first teachers were mechanics on the track. She paid one of them from her pocket money and got trained on racing techniques such as cornering skills, braking techniques and racing lines.
Her passion for racing and speed paid off and she soon began performing at city-level races and bagged the Speed Tournament conducted by The Times of India. Her victory should have been a cause for celebration, at home. But it wasn’t. For, her parents objected to her racing passion. That didn’t stop Sneha from racing ahead.
She would sneak her helmet into her school bag. Her studies, too, were important, and she would carry her books everywhere, even studying on the racing tracks.
After gaining racing knowledge at the Powai track, Sneha began competing in small championships around the country.
Rayomand Banajee, a former racer who now runs the Rayo Racing karting squad, spotted her at one such event. Impressed by her skills, it was Banajee who suggested she compete in the national karting championship.
But education and career led her down a different path. She spent 11 months in the USA to complete her pilot training. When she went for a flying course to California at the age of 17, she thought that her racing career was over. But racing had now got into her blood.
Though she secured a high-paying job on her return to India a year later, Sneha’s love for motorsport, magnetised her back into racing. Indeed, the year 2009 was a turning point for Sneha for she returned fitter and more competitive than before, finishing runner-up in the National Karting Championship.
In 2010, Sneha raced with selected 20 drivers across the country at the Chennai and Coimbatore racing tracks. She distinguished herself as the only one to have driven at the Volkswagen Polo Cup.
In 2011, she she joined Indigo Airlines but continued with her racing career with greater speed.
That very year, she emerged as one of the drivers in the top five at the Mercedes Young Star driver programme. She drove her car at the astonishing speed of 270 kmph at the Buddh International Circuit, Greater Noida.
Impressed by her performance, renowned Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher gave her a signed model car after this race.
While flying with Indigo and doing sponsored racing events, JK Tyres approached her to represent them in the national racing event. Seeing her blazing run on the tracks, Indigo too threw their hat in the ring.
Now a brand ambassador for JK Tyres and Indigo, Sneha’s calendar for racing is full up.
There’s racing galore: British F4, Formula 4 Spanish Championship, Formula 4 South East Asia, F2000 Series Middle East, Formula Renault Asia, and Japanese Formula 4.
Her story will not only inspire women to go out of their comfort zone to defy male bastions, but shows that you can excel in more careers than one―at the same time.
(Sources: Internet and media reports)
