When My Hobby Turned Into Profession: Hyderabad Biker Karthik Mateti

7 Dec, 2019 15:45 IST|Sakshi

By Amena Rasti

Unlike many other countries, India’s education system does not demand a student to be an employee as well to earn an extra buck. The students going to college here enjoy their college life to the fullest while learning many essential tricks and traits of a profession they would like to choose in future. Hobbies are also something that is not being given enough importance in the Indian education system. Therefore, we can see many of our young just about going to college and coming back home and doing nothing.

Here is a story of a boy who has not only been concentrating on his hobby, while pursuing his B.Com in Roots Degree College in Hyderabad, but has also managed to convert it into a profession. He believes in the famous saying ‘Work with something you love, and you will never work another day.’ A racing enthusiast and a bike racer himself, he has many accolades to his name on both national and international platforms in bike racing. He is none other than Karthik Mateti -our very own Hyderabadi racer!

Coming to his achievements, in 2017 he emerged as the youngest and the only rider who represented Telangana in the JKTYRE SUZUKI GIXXER CUP 2017. Later in 2018, he won many more titles like ,WINNER of AVT Gold cup endurance race of 90 mins (Stock 165cc), MMRT which was held in Chennai and Overall National Champion in stock up to 165Cc category -INMRC.

The year 2018 was a wonderful phase for him with his numerous achievements at the national level.

In 2019 he received an Outstanding International Performance award from FMSCI (Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India) and an award for National championships in his debut year from FMSCI. Apart from these, he had the bagged Outstanding International Performance TVS one make Champion Stock 165 National Champion and many more.

Recalling about the birth of his passion "I was very interested in bike racing since from childhood and used to love watching all the racing championships on TV. I think I was in class 6, when I took away my brother's bike for a ride and that's how my passion for bike racing had began," Karthik stated in a telephonic with Sakshi Post.

"Later on I started racing on the streets. But I wanted to be a professional racer. That's when I started searching for the right path to my goal. My goal was in mind but I did not have the right pavement to achieve it," the young motorist added.

He also said, "Earlier nobody from my family knew about my interest and passion and my preparations to become a professional racer. Even after coming to know everything, my family did not support me much and I struggled a lot."

Talking about how he finally got a chance to become a professional racer, Karthik stated, "I finally joined Race'ists, a motorsport club that trains professional racers. I used to go on a Go Karting track, which is at Shamirpet in the outskirts of the city during weekends," he said. Then after a few months, he became a professional racer.

Later he was certified by the Federation of Motorsports Club of India, which is the official authority to conduct all the two and four wheeler racing events.

His performance at the National level earned him a wild card entry to represent India in the FIM Asia Cup Of Road Racing 2018 which was an International Tournament held in Delhi in the year 2018 December. He made his mark and won the race ahead of his Asian counterparts like Srilanka, Nepal and Australia.

Karthik has been getting many opportunities to show- case his talents and he has been grabbing as many he possibly could to pursue his passion. But, he has always faced a problem of funding for these races, especially the ones that are overseas. As there is a lot of money involved in this, he finds it difficult to achieve his full potential due to lack of financial support.

As the Government of Telangana has been supportive of many cases with similar causes in the field of sports, he hopes to get funding through the government to achieve higher goals and put Hyderabad on the international platform in the field of bike racing.

He is slated to race at the Asia road racing Championship, Msbk ( Malaysian suberbike series/Championship) and Thailand Championship in the upcoming year.

Take a look at his journey in Asia Cup Of Road Racing 2018 where he represented India and emerged as a winner!