Champion racer Alisha Abdullah is in top gear as she dons new roles

“The guys, after every race, used to put me down. I would be one among the last. They would tell me that I am a girl and that I couldn’t do it, say things like girls should get married. I took it up as a challenge. And with every race I worked hard and I improved my position,” says Alisha Abdullah. She went on to prove the ‘guys’ wrong.

One of India’s very few professional women bike racers Alisha inched her way up, competing with men, to be one among the best in the circuit. “Today guys come up to me asking me for tips for the track.” She is also a car racer. She recently won the Toyota Vios Cup, a street car race held in Thailand, where she competed with the best women racers in Asia. “These women are much stronger and tougher racers and I won competing against them.” She says over phone from Chennai where she is based. She said she is scheduled to visit the city for the inauguration of Lap 47, a performance studio for vehicles.

At a time when little girls dreamt of becoming princesses or at least a Miss Universe, Alisha was on the race track wanting to be a biker like her father, R.A. Abdullah, a seven-time national biking champion. Go-karting, bikes and car racing…the petite Alisha has done it all – won prizes and broken records. At 13 she won the national go-karting championship and the best Novice Award in the open class of Formula car racing. She was all of 15 when she got to bike racing.

It is not easy being a professional car or bike racer ‘irrespective of gender’, she says. “As a racer you have to extremely alert. There are many things you need to monitor – check if the RPM is going down or if there is some other suspicious blip and this at speeds exceeding 160 kmph.” A profession which demands physical and mental strength, it keeps her on her toes constantly. She works out intensely, “focussing on strength training than cardio. I never do any cardio. The physical demands of car and bike racing are different. For the former, neck and lower back are the areas of focus. And I train only with men because, I mean no offense, but their workouts are much more intense when compared to how women workout. I can do between 50 to 60 push-ups in a minute.”

With all talk of RPM, bikes, cars and racing tracks one would think this is all the 25 year-old does. She is consumed by it but there is more to her. She is a model and an actor too. She debuted in the recently released Tamil film Irumbu Kuthirai. She plays the villain’s (a biker) girlfriend. “The story was based on bike-racing and, like everything else in my life; I wanted to do a role different from the usual run-of-the-mill characters.” This was a guest role, soon she is to start shooting for a yet-to-be named project she is the lead actor, “I play a psycho.”

Any offers from the Malayalam film industry? “None yet!”

Films and racing, isn’t the plate loaded? “No. My role model is Danica Patrick, she is an actor and a car racer. She is married, has a family and multi-tasks. It’s not that I am doing a 100 things. Just two things and that’s fine.”

Films and modelling are an aside, her focus is racing. She plans to start an academy for racing for women at Chennai. Her dream is fuelled by a desire to see more women competing in motor sport. “There are so many talented sportswomen, but almost none in motorsport. I want to change that trend. And if a man wants to come he can come wearing a wig!” she signs off.

source:  http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Shilpa Nair Anand / August 31st, 2014