CHENNAI: Having never been a late riser, Aditya Patel tells us with a straight face that he has never been too attached to his sleep. That said, with his first ever 24-hour race around the bend, this Chennai-based racing sensation may have to fight to keep his eyes open on the track. "Well, there will be two other racers in the car," he says, "so it's perfectly safe. We take turns so no one person gets too tired."The 23-year-old was signed by luxe car manufacturer Audi close to a month ago as a racer for team Pro-Handicap e.V., in the VLN endurance series in Germany. In fact, Aditya will be the first Indian racer to take part in the Nurburgring 24 – named after the German race track – which will see its fortieth edition later this month.Are his racing partners as young as he is? "No, they're all much older and married," he laughs, and then adds seriously, "Wolfgang Mueller and Oliver Rudolf (teammates for the race) have a lot of experience – they've probably done this race about seven to eight times." With the race track's reputation of being one of the most challenging in the world, this selection is quite an honour for Patel.The young racer points out, "With an international race, the challenging part is making the most of the 30 minutes of practice you get before the race." In most countries, he elaborates, every race car is available and all that is required is to hire a team and the track to practise. "In Chennai we have the track, but not the cars," laments Aditya who spends most of his free time training at the Sriperumbudur race track.For someone who started out as a go-karting champ at age 11, this youngster has certainly come a long way. And his three-year contract with Audi now ensures he test drives all their uber-cool cars, which is quite the dream come true for Patel. He reveals, "I always wanted to sign on with a manufacturer. I just never realised I would get lucky so early in my career." What does he do when he isn't on the job? He smiles brightly, "Well, I can whip up a mean dum biryani." He smiles, "I was really bored one day, so I looked up the recipe and it turns out I'm a pretty good cook!"
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