A Racing Heart - California Superbike School (C.S.S.) 2025

I have a pet tortoise, Sebastian, and over the years, I've come to realise that I've learned a lot from him. He's never rushed, always cool, calculated and mostly effortless in his movement. I've tried to mimic that mentality in my life, and it's worked well for me to a great extent. But when Seb is presented with a sweet seasonal fruit, like a mango for instance, he simply didn't hold back. It's a far cry from his daily dose of veggies and at this point you would see him stripped of his calm demeanour and go absolutely nuts for something seemingly as simple as a fruit. Track time to me is my seasonal fruit. My rate of consumption is annual at best, and the level of elation was at its relative peak. Track days are immensely fun. No traffic, no people, just man and machine, in an isolated environment dedicated to high-speeds and commitment. The dream sequence began with an invite to the California Superbike School (C.S.S.) last year, and for a change, those who usually get these sort of invites first, back in the office, didn't jump at the opportunity like famished carnivores.

Photography by Aditya Bedre

I was thrilled when KTM responded positively with my request for a RC 390 for the course, and it was all very dreamy until I found out that I would not be getting my own one-piece leather suit in time, just days before the training weekend. Just when I thought I was done donning rented suits of the sketchy-odour kind. Imagine, it's the first time you get to attend one of the most sought after track riding schools in the world, which will work on your every movement and mentality out on track over the course of three days and make you a better, faster rider â€" and you don't have leathers. A downer no doubt. Thankfully, the C.S.S. is one of the rare few racing schools in the world that allows students to wear armored textile riding gear (jackets and pants), should they not own a set of proper track leathers. Out here in India, at least. Yes, it's not ideal, not by a long shot, but hyped about attending the C.S.S. this year as I'd never been to any proper training camp of this sort, and I decided not to give up my seat to the hungry hawks back at the office. That, and the fact that we weren't there to race, we were there to learn, left me with a more positive outlook. In retrospect, this marked the first time I ever went out (or was allowed out) on track without leathers and although it didn't completely fill me with confidence besides making for some exceptionally odd-looking photographs, what an absolutely brilliant decision that eventually turned out to be!

Photography by Aditya Bedre

Anyone and everyone is capable of going fast in a straight line. It's in the corners where you tend to fall short of pace. It's where your lap time is defined. It's all about your entry speed, finding your line, the momentum you carry through and exit speed, right? Not exactly. It's more than that. First, couple of classroom sessions were more like lessons in physics, where we were told of the changing dynamics of the motorcycle while under braking, accelerating and cornering pressures, and how we should ideally be working in tandem with these forces to stabilise or destabilise the bike in order to go where you'd ideally like to be around the track.

Then comes the part as to where you're looking or where you should be, where you should be on the bike, your body positioning, how to transition along with your bike through a sequence of corners, if something happens mid-corner, how to react appropriately in accordance with the bike, all while maintaining track etiquette throughout. At C.S.S. you are assigned a coach who will run you through three levels of training over the course of three-to-four days as you learn how to master the art of cornering. This happens through classroom briefings â€" where your coach tells you of a certain riding drill that you will have to practice executing in the 20 minute riding session which follows. Once that track session is through, the riders are then ushered into a debriefing session where each coach tells their assigned students what they did wrong individually or what they could do better, while taking on queries and sorting out any forms of difficulties.

The attention to detail here is crucial for you to understand each drill and its implications out on track over the course of the weekend of training. The coaches keep sneaking around the circuit and assessing riders randomly during the session, and if you're having trouble finding your line around a certain corner, they'll ask you to trail and understand the quickest way past. Having someone in front of you riding relatively fast on a higher capacity bike, whilst taking on corners with one hand on the bar while also taking notes and keeping an eye on you in the mirror to see how you're doing is something else, I'll tell you that. It's just so reassuring that if this guy can manage all that, I, on my sprightly KTM RC390 cup bike can at the least go a little faster. It's highly inspiring.

My coach, Siddharth Trivellore, saw that I was too conscious of people behind me and told me to cut looking over my shoulder before a corner so often. I was just being cautious about being rear-ended, but gave it a shot and I grew more confident over the next two sessions. The following days, over each of the five sessions held each day, I was guided how to shift my body position without upsetting the bike in a quick succession of corners and as to where I should be looking to enter a certain long corner because I was carrying more pace than the others in the session and should be looking to tip in earlier than the marked entry points around the Madras Circuit.

There was a certain phobia that I had at the last corner, C12, which is just before the home straight. There's a bit of a dent in the surface just at the apex of the corner, which also happened to be a bit dirty looking. in my mind, fast, leaned over, aiming for dirty apex while hitting a bump wasn't safe. At all. Sid saw me running wide at this corner a couple of times and I had to explain my course of action. Once I followed him out and trusted in the dynamics of the motorcycle, I got a feel of how it reacted and responded to my inputs, and after a couple of laps, it felt way more natural, simply phenomenal! Having someone see what you're doing and help sort your doubts or incorrect approach to certain aspects is just so enlightening. Now I get why everyone who gets a chance to be part of C.S.S. jumps at the opportunity. Rest assured that I'm going to fight tooth and nail for the next round.

Lap times around a circuit are, are equally as precious as our time in the sun. Every fraction of a second counts. And if you partake in C.S.S., the level of attention you get to your every reaction out on track, your every movement, is not only scrutinised and evaluated, but you get feedback from your coach who tells you where you slipped up and how to improve, or and where around the circuit you were strong and can be quicker. And that is absolutely priceless! If you are young and ambitious and fancy getting into track racing, this C.S.S. course is simply a no-brainer.

The younger you are, the better, because it'll help you out in your ambitions as a track-bred professional sooner. The level of coaching and attention to detail out here is just tremendous. You only have to exude a level of competency to know what and where in the session you weren't at your best and these trainers have legitimate propositions for you to work on and get better. And you're getting all that from some of the best certified trainers in the world. After what I've witnessed this year, the C.S.S. runs like a well-oiled machine.

A lot of guys like riding fast on the road at every instance they get, and I get it. I was part of that contingency a while back. It's true, speed is highly addictive. But that's one of the things that I learned from my Sebastian. You can't go blazing past all throughout, or you'll simply whizz by some of the finer sights and joys. It's about the finer lines in life. Speed and safety are paramount out in the real world, where you have to rely on people following rules and traffic signals to stay safe. Where there are no barriers keeping animals out, or marked chicanes to show you where the edge is. life isn't a race track, which is what Sebastian taught me. Although race tracks are going to be a lot more fun after my experience out here, for sure. But the lessons and level of skill imparted out here at the Madras International Circuit with the C.S.S. crew here can definitely carry forward to on-road situations as well.

Fond memories of events during this time make penning this one down slightly difficult. Because my wife called to inform me that our Sebastian had passed on the eve of day one of the training programme, which completely tore apart my tapestry of elation. For eleven years he had been a mute and adorable companion of mine. I contemplated leaving the training and getting back home asap. But then I thought, how would me going back home really help matters? I remembered this one look that Seb he had on his face whenever he surprised Shamika and me with his presence out in the open at home. Because he was busy doing his own thing for most part. It was his all too familiar face which implied, 'Yeah, I don't care, just do it!'. which is a face I'd often remember in times of dismay. And after hours of sorrowful deliberation, I opted to soldier on in this rather unfamiliar exercise, even with my prudent track costume. Much like my virgin C.S.S. experience, Seb's time with us was never perfect. But it was certainly eventful, immensely fun and a fantastic journey while it lasted and I will always be grateful for having been part of the exceptional life-altering experiences. With a racing heart. For my boy, Sebastian Chaves.