Starting on February 26 this year, the second season of the Bajaj Pulsar Festival concluded in a grand finale at the Kari Motor Speedway racetrack in Coimbatore. The event ran through six cities, starting with Gurgaon and going on to Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune (with a combined event at Aamby Valley for the last two) before ending at Coimbatore which hosted the final race.
Races were held at each of the cities and the top two finishers from each class were selected – every city got a chance to compete at the final race in Coimbatore. After receiving training in racecraft from expert racers, these 12 racers in each of the classes (Pulsar RS200, Pulsar AS/NS200 and Pulsar 220F) got to duke it out at Kari in a bid to get crowned as the champions of their respective classes.
In the final standings, it was Saad Gaibi from Pune who won top honours in the Pulsar RS200 category, Karan Drishya in the Pulsar AS/NS200 category and Arvind Ganesh in the Pulsar 220F category. Each of these three champions was awarded the Pulsar Cup and prize money of Rs 50,000. The first and second runners-up in the RS200 class, Zabiulla and Zuber Ali (both from Bengaluru), won cash prizes of Rs 25,000 and Rs 15,000, respectively.
The event wasn’t just about racing as it had a whole plethora of activities to keep enthusiasts happy. These included stunt shows, some dirt and drag racing, DIY sessions as well as race and stunt workshops.
Speaking about the event, Sumeet Narang, vice president of marketing for Bajaj Auto, quoted, “The first edition of Pulsar Festival of Speed witnessed overwhelming response from bike enthusiasts across the length and breadth of the country. As a sports biking market leader, it is our constant endeavour to keep evolving the landscape and taking customer engagement to new levels. We successfully engaged over 20,000 fans from across the country for this mega show last year, and this year we further managed to better the footfalls as we brought in some more fun and action for the audience.”
The company plans to take the Pulsar Festival of Speed to an international scale in the coming years, extending participation to overseas racing enthusiasts as well.