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Chennai boy breaks barriers on the track

From having hard days over mathematics in school to handling high-speed racing cars, Chennais Monith Kumaran has come a long way in life. Growing up watching multiple-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso in both his Renault and McLaren days, the sight of him zooming in the slipstreams and beating his opponents caught Moniths imagination. Years later, the 21-year-old has taken a credible step towards realising the dream by winning the rookie category (93 points) of the LGB F4 event as part of the JK Tyres National Racing Championship, which concluded at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore recently. In the third and final round, he won three of the four races to collect a total of 34 points. The LGB category is an entry-level category for single-seat open-wheel racing. The cars are powered by a 1298cc Suzuki Swift engine. Apart from enjoying the sight of Alonso dominating the track in F1, Moniths life in school was filled with doubt. He found it difficult to deal with arithmetic, and according to his father Srinivasan, Monith was often found finishing tests late. We felt he should take up open schooling after he found it difficult to calculate. The fact that he writes with his left arm invited suspicion from the teachers, he explained. It could be said that for Monith, motorsports is what makes him a rather stubborn person. On a trip to Kancheepuram in 2019, Srinivasan recalled how the boy managed to push his cause to race. He kept crying, saying, My dream is getting spoiled throughout the return trip home. There could have been skepticism and doubt surrounding Monith, considering his perceived symptoms of abnormal intelligence. A psychological test administered at a government ministry-approved institute in 2021 had concluded that Monith fell under the Borderline Intellectual Functionality. But when it came to racing, Monith seemed a different person altogether. Two months into learning the kart, he got the opportunity to participate in a national level karting tournament. I won my first Karting event at KMS in Coimbatore, and then we thought of taking the Formula 1300 car in the Novice Cup, but Covid hit, and we could not take up more races, he told CE. With the growth in the sport came the outside noise over his conduct. People, he recalled, had said certain things about it. I just push it away. My coaches tell me that when youre going to the circuit, its just you and the track. Youre alone. Just drive, drive and drive, Monith added. In his pursuit of success, he impressed Sarosh Hatoria, team principal of Ahura Racing. And after three training sessions, he selected me for the 2022 rookie championship. In my first season itself I got third in the rookie. And it was a good progress, shared Monith. This season, in a way, is a redemption for Monith. In the 2023 rookie championship, he lost the title by a point to Mehul Agarwal. He also finished third in the overall championship then. Funnily enough, I won the (rookie) title by a point this year, he added. Ganesh Prasad, five-time national motorcycle champion and Monith's coach, summed up Moniths first experience on the wheel, a rented one, as average. One thing that struck me is his ability to grasp instructions properly. He also pays attention to details. It is the passion that makes him a different person altogether on the tracks, Ganesh said. The former racer was also surprised to see how Monith adapted to weather conditions, which play a big role in races. In a Mini-max event that saw heavy rain, he was able to get the lines correctly and managed his speed well. He really embodies the meaning of being special, he added.