BANGALORE: They are the fastest kids on the block. The Maini siblings — Arjun and Kush - started steering the car much before they could set their feet steadily on the ground.
The advent into motorsport wasn’t by chance for these two little speed-loving brothers. For it runs in their blood. Watching their father Gautam Maini race at the Formula India Single Seater Maruti Engine (FISSME) at the National Racing Championship in the late 90s made the brothers take a serious plunge into the sport of man and machine. Today Arjun and Kush are fierce fighters in their respective categories at the Rotax Max National Karting championship.
Arjun raced into history in 2008, winning the Micromax Formula Cadet category at the Royal Kelantan Kart Prix at Tengku Makhota Karting Circuit in Malaysia, thus becoming the first Indian to win an Asian race U-13 category. He went on to win the 2008 Asia Rotax Max Challenge at Elite Speedway Plus track in Malaysia.
Arjun finished second at the five-round Rotax Max National Karting championship for juniors held in Hyderabad, Kolhapur and Coimbatore this season.
Kush is not too far behind his brother when it comes to racing. The ten-year-old finished second of 14 drivers at the Plus Yamaha SL Cup 2010 Malaysian Series. He raced in the Asia Max Challenge in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand and secured two podiums, besides finishing third in the Micro Max category of the National Rotax Max Karting championship this season. Arjun received an electric car as his first birthday present and that marked his journey with the engines. At the age of five, Arjun got his first engine-powered kart, an S-80 karting vehicle capable of doing a top speed of 80 km/hr. The very next year, Arjun stpped into competitive racing. Kush, too followed his brothers footsteps as his father Gautam admits “Like always the younger brother uses the same stuff that his elder one once used and so was Kush. He played with the electric car before stepping into the engine-powered Kart.”
Like all aspiring racers, Arjun and Kush too have their targets set - the Formula One. “I want to race in Formula One but before that I have a lot of things to do. I am not in a hurry but I want take step by step,” Arjun said while his younger sibling wants to become the successful driver “I want to become a successful driver and then Formula One,” Kush said.
“My dad used to race and I used to go watch him at Chennai. I liked it a lot. When I was four and a half, I got my first real engine-powered car,” Arjun said. Kush says he fell in love with motorsport watching his father “I fell in love with motorsport, watching my dad drive in the races.”
Their proud dad is ready to go all out to make his kids’ dream turn into reality. “They will have my support throughout. I started racing late in my career but my kids have got into it quite early. I think they are quite capable of making it big and achieve what I couldn’t,” Gautam said.
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