Once again racer, Ravi Nair, has proved that with determination and persistence, anything is possible.

Mr Nair managed to beat champion racer, Ravin Nath, at the drags the past Sunday clocking a time of 10.22 seconds.

And indeed it was a proud moment for the director of Light Sounds and Royal Weddings Fiji, Mr Nair, to yet again stand tallest in the number one spot for racing in Fiji.

This is not the first time Mr Nair has won the drags and neither is it the first time he has beaten Mr Nath. He has won the overall winner title three times now.

In 2013, Mr Nair ended a nine-year winning streak by Mr Nath. Then in 2014, he pulled his second title to his name and this most recent one is his third win.

“Winning is the best thing that happens at the tracks. It takes a lot of preparation work before going on the track,” Mr Nair said.

“Then once on the track, it comes down to the mental game of racing. So with everything in place, I am happy to come out of the race track with a win.”

The 10.22 seconds recorded on Sunday is Mr Nair’s personal best so far in his four and a half years racing career.

“I was last given a time of 10.35 seconds in 2012 which I feel was recorded incorrectly,” he said.

“However, from my personal record keeping it proves that my last personal best time should have been 10.44 seconds and not 10.35 seconds.”

Mr Nair said he will continue to work to improve his own personal best time as he goes along however, he is not targeting to beat anyone else’s time.

Achieving the timing

Mr Nair uses his Series 5 Mazda RX7 for racing which he bought in 2009 when it used to be a street legal vehicle.

With all the modifications done over the years, it is surely not a street legal car today.

We asked Mr Nair how he managed to achieve the much-improved timing which led to his win.

“I had been working on the car in different areas that could help make it go faster and improve the time as well,” he said.

“We were doing 10.7 seconds consistently the past year. Then after some work on the car, the time came done to 10.6s and 10.5s then further down to 10.4s upon making smaller changes and adjustments.”

Mr Nair sought the assistance of ‘rotary gurus’ from New Zealand to have his car tuned before the race.

“I have had the car tuned up by the engineers who look after the MAD MIKE Weapon drift cars in New Zealand, USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa,” he said.

“These engineers are such a difference-maker and the result is evident when the car performs at the race track.”

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