Fans, numbering more than 20,000 and of all ages, had the time of their lives and they were all screaming and cheering for the Brit.
“The fan following in Bangalore is much more than at the British Grand Prix. They are not as passionate as this,” said a beaming Lewis Hamilton. Those words from the McLaren Mercedes Formula One driver summed up the entire show.
Fans, numbering more than 20,000 and of all ages, had the time of their lives and they were all screaming and cheering for the Brit. This should give ample indication that the inaugural Indian Grand Prix next month will not be a damp squib. Indians are extensively exposed to F1 racing and the youth are hooked on to television sets on race days. But on Tuesday, the idea of seeing the mean machines zoom back and forth right in front of their eyes set everybody’s pulses racing. It was there to see.
After VJ Ranvijay got the crowd all pumped up, it was time for the real thing. Out came Hamilton in the MP4-23, the same one he won the 2008 drivers’ title with, and the noise was deafening. The sound of the car was more or less drowned out.
The car was obviously not race-tuned but to see it go blindingly fast back and forth several times and do donuts and tyre burnouts was, to put it simply, ‘the best experience ever’. After that, Hamilton drove several Vodafone contest winners in Mercedes Benz AMG cars up and down the 600-700 metre cordoned-off stretch of NICE Road.
One of them, Mumbai’s 13-year-old Harsh Meswani, has reportedly paid a big sum during an auction for the drive with Hamilton. The money will go to Magic Bus, an NGO that supports kids through sport. Four other contest winners will get to spend the race weekend with the McLaren team at the Indian GP.
Surprisingly, hardly any of the local celebrities turned up. The exception was Ashok Kheny, builder of NICE Road, who was driven around by Hamilton.
Over-enthusiastic fans kept trying to get close to the action and crowded near the fencing, which eventually gave way. Some even poured on to the track, but were sent back by the police. After taking the contest winners for tizzying spins, Hamilton got back in the F1 car for some more runs. He then went about in a golf cart and threw autographed caps into the crowds. That wrapped up the event and, surely, a lot of people went back home absolutely thrilled.
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