Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (PMD)

Mangaluru, Dec 20: Karting or kart racing may not be a popular sport in the coastal region of Karnataka, but here''s a boy of Mangaluru origin who has earned name and fame in the sport at the tender age of 10.

Karting prodigy Ruhaan Alva, son of builder and former rally driver Umakanth Alva and dance instructor Neeta, has been signed up with the iconic Birel Art Italian Karting Team as a factory driver. With this, Ruhaan will get to test with the Birel Art Junior drivers to assess his skills on a new track under different weather conditions to prepare for the 2017 season. Drivers like Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel are among the those who have made it to Formula 1 through this team.

Initial years

Ruhaan''s ardent love for cars began at the age of 3 when he was able to identify cars by the cross section of the drawing in magazines. He could also identify a car just by looking at the key.

At the age of 7-and-a-half, Ruhaan had his first taste of karting, when he displayed his natural ability on the local track in Bengaluru. Ruhaan took to motor sport like a duck to water, and there has been no looking back for him ever since.

Karting as a career

2014: Ruhaan began training with Fusion motorsports in the UK and he won five of his first 6 races in the novice category. Unfortunately, business commitments came in the way of Ruhaan continuing in the UK since a lot of time and travel commitments were to be made for the 2015 season. His father then decided it was time for Ruhaan to participate in the Indian National Karting Championship.

2015: In his very first year of karting in India, Ruhaan won the rookie cup and finished runner up in the National Championship having placed on the podium in all the races except in one round. He even won the 2nd round at Hyderabad.

2016: Ruhaan fought hard to win the Championship this year, but an engine issue in round 3 and 4 dropped him down to third in the Championship with just one more round to go. In the 5th round at Kolhapur he kept a cool head even though he could not get a qualifying time put in due to a spark plug failure and started from the last place. He won the final with a huge margin and stamped his authority in the Micro Max class and finished vice champion in the 2016 season also.

Future plans for F1 Championship

The long term plan begins from 2017 where Ruhaan would be participating in the Italian Championship initially before moving on to the world finals in 2018.

Birel Art has teams in F4, Formula Renault, DTM, GP3 and GP2, which will make the progression natural for Ruhaan, provided he be able to raise the required sponsorship to reach the pinnacle of the sport.

With all the ability, hard work, natural talent and raw speed it would still be difficult to realise his dream of being F1 World champion as the path chosen is a tough one. But with a never-say-die attitude Ruhaan is well on his way to get there.