'Winning a championship is not easy'

How does GT86 rate as a sports car for racing? Why is it called “Fun to Drive”?

Actually Subaru makes the Toyota GT86 cars. Three models of it are sold worldwide. One is Subaru BRG, another is Toyota GT86 and in the US it’s the Sayon FRS. All three cars look exactly the same. There are small differences like maybe the backlights are a little different or the bumper is a little different. The one I had was the Sayon FRS. This version is different from the other 86s because it was a modified 86 for racing. There was no interior inside the car, that makes the car lighter.

In our category the minimum weight was 1,200 kg. Including the driver, my car’s weight was 1,310 kg. So, we couldn’t reduce the weight much, but we have decided that in the future we will further reduce the car’s weight and make it faster. Actually, GT86 is a platform, Toyota have intentionally collaborated with Subaru to reduce the centre of gravity of their car. As it uses boxer engines, which can be very effective in reducing the centre of gravity.

Through this collaboration, Toyota is trying to increase the car’s driving pleasure. This car is very easy to drive and even people who are new to driving can easily drive GT86. We imported the second unit of this car in Bangladesh. Power-wise it’s a little behind. In terms of driving pleasure, I will give it 10 out of 10. For a race car it is a little slow, but I will give it 8 out of 10.

What modifications have you made to the car for racing?

We have faced a lot of challenges while modifying the car. But still, we became the first Bangladeshi team to win a racing championship. We are very proud of it. At first, we bought the car from a used car market. We bought this from a college student at a very good price. He was leaving Dubai after completing his graduation.

During modification, you have to fit a roll cage into the race car and if it’s off by even one millimetre, you don’t get permission to race. Our car was off by a millimetre, so we weren't allowed to race. We fixed it and from Round 3 we could start racing in this car. Before that, we had to rent another car to compete.

In this series, other than the engine, we were allowed to modify anything else like brakes, cooling system, suspension etc. More or less, we modified all of them. We imported many parts from the US. Even in a place like Dubai, we couldn’t find everything. All in all, it was a very arduous journey. From afar, it could seem like winning it was very easy. But actually it wasn’t, in fact, it was extemely difficult.

On 5 February, you were under tremendous pressure when racing. How did you handle that pressure to become champion?

Actually, there are no race tracks in Bangladesh. This is the biggest challenge in competing from Bangladesh. Our governing body, Automobile Association of Bangladesh, is recognised by the FIA but they can’t issue a license. They can only give no objection certificates. We have to go through formalities like getting a visa, booking tickets, getting tested for Covid-19 to go to another country to race. After reaching there, in the middle of the race, we get informed that I have been shifted to another category. Although the rule is that we have to be informed before the race. In my case, the rule wasn’t followed. After the race, they announced that I'd finished third.

After that, I was unsure if I was going to take part in the next race. Mine investment and that of my sponsor was on the line. Not racing after spending so much money and getting so far didn’t feel like the right decision. So, I took the whole thing as a challenge because a person can’t learn how to win before losing first. I like to lose. In my first 2-3 years in racing, I have lost many times. People around me, my family and friends used to laugh at me and say I am wasting money. So I used to feel this urge to prove myself. From this urge, even with an underpowered car I finished third in that race, which was an incredible achievement.

My lap time with that car was my best ever. Even after I was put in a difficult position, I surpassed myself with that same car. I would say that was a great learning experience for me. The organisers later withdrew their discriminatory decision and I was announced winner. But that entire experience taught me a lot of things.

Tell us something about your team.

Our Bangladeshi racing team is named Bangladesh Motorsports. I’ll talk about our team manager Rashid Ali. He is four or five years younger than me. We have a brotherly bond. This is his first year as a team manager. He has performed wonderfully. In our technical team we have Sajal, Khokon, Kamrul and Sohag. We have an engine mechanic from Ghana. But after staying with us for a long time, he has started eating with his hands and has almost turned into a Bangladeshi. We are a six-man team and we are maintaining two cars. Another driver in the team, my student Ishayet Hossain, also raced.

After I won a race in Dubai, many people thought it’s very easy and many from Bangladesh went there to compete but haven’t found any real success. My closest friend from India and competitor Anmol Singh would see my posts in Instagram and would often say, “Very easy, you raced by yourself.” He is a very good racer from India. He later raced in Dubai and somehow finished third. After that he congratulated me and said, he used to joke with me about it but after taking part he has realised how difficult that race is. It took me 2 minutes 2 seconds in every lap whereas he took 2 minutes 6 or 7 seconds to finish a lap. On a race track, a 5-6 seconds difference is a lot. So then he realised that what I was doing wasn’t that easy. Those who think this is very easy, I would tell them if it’s so simple then go to Dubai and win a championship on a Formula 1 race track.

On a Formula 1 race track the margin of error is exceptionally low. It doesn’t matter how overpowered a car is, a small mistake can cause the car to spin and hit the walls which would end his race right there. It is said that in racing, money, experience and talent, all three things are very important. If someone doesn’t have money or experience but has talent, he can’t achieve anything. So crossing all of these steps and then winning a championship is not an easy task. It’s also not easy to form a team like we have right here. It’s very difficult to have a dedicated team like ours. Once we couldn’t find a spark plug, so Rashid Ali drove all the way to Oman to get it. No other team would do this. To fulfill our ambition to win a championship with our Bangladeshi team, we had to achieve such impossible feats.

How much have you had to sacrifice for racing?

I have had to sacrifice a lot for racing. I incur a lot of losses in my car business. I can’t give time to the showroom. And the car business is actually a one-to-one business. I mean a buyer wants to directly talk with the owner before buying a car. We are doing well but are also incurring losses. My wife travels with me to everywhere and so can’t do something of her own. I can’t finish listing all of the sacrifices. I have sacrificed a lot for racing. Then I have to meet certain conditions in the interests of the sponsors though their funding barely covers 30-40 per cent of the expenses.