Imran Majid, of BIC fastest lap fame, talks about drag racing, its future in India and more!

With over 19 years of professional drag racing experience, Imran Majid is living a dream that began in 9th grade. His love for speed and cars began when he started watching his dad modify cars and with time that passion only grew stronger. He created the POD CAR for the Netflix movie AK vs AK in a record 21 days. Also, he, along with his team, recently built the car, which drove the fastest at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) in Noida, setting the track record. And Imran isn’t stopping as he is currently building what could be the fastest car in India. In a recent conversation with Imran, he lets us in on his love for drag racing, its future in India and what he is looking forward to in the future.

How did your career in drag racing begin?

I used to have a driver in school, who used to drive me from school to my home in Lonavala. He would drive at breakneck speeds, which fuelled my need for speed and got me fascinated by it. Coming to drag racing, it was around 2004, when I passed out of school and I witnessed one of the first drag races in Mumbai. That’s when I got to know about the sport. From then, I started participating in every event that took place in Mumbai and around India too. I used to drive down to Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi. Professionally on the circuit, I did the opening season for Volkswagen for the Polo Cup that happened in India in 2010. I was one of the 20 drivers selected to drive for them. I started with the 1000cc category and from there I shifted to the 1300, 1500, then to the 1800 turbo category. I also drove the 2500cc category. I landed my hands on the Nissan Skyline GT-R in 2021, that’s when I graduated to the highest tier of drag racing in the country.

Take us through the safety aspects of drag racing?

In India, we have a board called FMSCI – Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India. They have guidelines and rules and safety norms. The basic safety for drag racing, if you take a streetcar and go to a drag race, is that you have to put on your seat belt, you have to wear a helmet, you have to wear gloves and shoes. As you go into the higher categories, it gets compulsory to have a roll cage in the car and a fire extinguisher. You may have to have a four-point or five-point harness seat belt instead of your regular seat belt. And as much as I would say, it’s not a risky sport, if an incident has to happen, it could be really bad. But as of now, I could tell you that in my 19 years of racing, I have never seen a fatal incident while racing.

You are the co-founder of KIKShift, a project you started to build the fastest car in the country. Tell us about it. 

It was started by me and two of my friends. This project came along to maintain our personal cars. We went on to build India’s fastest BMW on the BIC at the moment. We already recorded two minutes and four seconds with the BMW M2. We are a bespoke maintenance shop and a performance workshop. The GT-R itself is completely built within the workshop. We imported some of the items. From carbon fibre on the body to the engine rebuild, to the transmission put together, everything has been done in our office.

What is the future of drag racing in India?

Two events — Valley Run and Vroom Drag Race — both these have just completed 10 years in India. Since their introduction, there’s been a big growth. There was a big slump in drag racing for about three to four years between 2012-2016. Now there are a lot more imported sports cars available at showrooms in the country. You have factory race cars and sports cars and it’s legally allowed to have them. A lot more growth is taking place in the sport with new customers who own these cars and who have a passion for speed. The future is just going bigger and bigger. In fact, we’re looking forward to one of India’s first professional drag racing events coming up in the south.

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