Bike’s roar, Harith’s sound of music

Harith speaks about how he got into the sport and the need for more teams.

Published : Jan 13, 2018 22:42 IST , KOCHI

Harith Noah, the defending champion in the six-leg MRF National Supercross Championship which opens at Nedumbassery, near Kochi, on Sunday.
Harith Noah, the defending champion in the six-leg MRF National Supercross Championship which opens at Nedumbassery, near Kochi, on Sunday.
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Harith Noah, the defending champion in the six-leg MRF National Supercross Championship which opens at Nedumbassery, near Kochi, on Sunday.

His mother Suzanne is a German who came down to Kerala to study Carnatic music many years ago but for Harith Noah, the vroom of bikes sounds a lot sweeter.

And he is an ace too on two wheels, a youngster who can do the ski jump on a bike and loves the challenge of a triple jump.

Harith, the 24-year-old from Shoranur in Kerala, is the defending champion in the six-leg MRF MoGrip National Supercross Championship which begins near the CIAL Convention Centre at Nedumbassery on Sunday.

Santosh: Faith in god keeps fear at bay

Despite returning from a two-year break from the muddy sport, where riders fly high over table tops and double and triple jumps, Harith was in roaring form last year winning the National title comfortably.

He was in Germany those two years, balancing work and downhill racing on bicycles and still came up with many decent finishes in the European circuit.

“This year does not look very different from last year,” said Harith in a chat with Sportstar after a walk around the Nedumbassery course on Saturday.

The TVS Racing star has won four national titles in various supercross categories and is a favourite to retain the title with another Kerala rider C.D. Jinan, who is faster on the sand, expected to give him a strong challenge once again.

With the National supercross circuit staying away from Kerala for long, Harith is not a familiar face in his home State but that could change with Sunday’sopening round.

MORE TEAMS NEEDED

“This sport is growing but more teams need to come in. There is TVS Racing and there is Angata which is like a private team. More factory teams need to come in,” said Harith.

Harith’s dad was into bike rallying many years ago and the sport came naturally to him.

“I was in a boarding school in Kodaikanal and when I came home for holidays in 2009 there was a local race and I took part in that on my road bike,” said the youngster who is doing his graduation in sports science.

"I liked it and wanted to do more. I must have been 16 or 17 then and the next year, I raced a little bit. By 2011, I started seriously, I got a real motocross bike.”

Unlike the motocross, the supercross is held on a tighter circuit and there is a lot of technique involved.
“I picked up most of the supercross stuff from Google but in 2012, I went to the SOBMX motocross centre in the US for training for about three months. That helped me a bit but if you ride more, you do it faster and it helps your technique too.”

Having won the National crown, Harith is looking at the bigger world but does not have a clear picture about what to do next. I’m looking at other possibilities but there is no Asian supercross, there is motocross. So I’m looking what to do.”

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