MUMBAI: When her friends kept Barbie dolls for company, she had eyes only for Hot Wheels – an American toy car. As a kid, lap did not mean knee to her, it always signified the circuit. When you see her without the helmet, she appears no less than an international model but she is a racer.

Chennai-born Alisha Abdullah’s tryst with speed began at a tender age as her father RA Abdullah was a racer himself and a seven-time national champion. Currently, she is India’s poster girl when it comes to motorsports.

Till last year, her life in the fast lane was limited to India but recently, she pushed the international accelerator. Alisha finished first and second in Toyota Yaris Cup in Bira Circuit, Thailand in June this year. She is also the only Indian participating in the Toyota VIOS Cup – a street race approved by the Federation Internationale de I’Automobile – comprising Asian woman racers which is currently underway across circuits in Thailand.

The 25-year-old turned heads after she finished sixth amongst 25 men in the Rotax National Go-Kart Championship in Hyderabad last year. She also happens to be the first woman to have a Volkswagen podium finish under her belt.

So, how difficult was it for her to break into a sport which is considered a man’s world?

“It is about will-power and confidence or else a man’s ego will never let a girl take on him in his own den,” she says.

Earlier, Alisha had her stint with bikes and karting too and learnt how to deal with men on the track. “I know how to give it back to them left, right and center,” adds the 24-year-old.

When asked about the kind of taunts she has to bear on the circuit, she says: “They used to bully me pointing at my womanhood. ‘You’re a girl, get off our way’ is what I usually heard but it only made me stronger. Once I gave it back too, I pushed one male racer from behind and told him he was slow. It hurt his ego so much that he had complained to the organisers.”

When she is not making the engines cry, she burns calories in the gymnasium as being fit and maintaining the correct weight is essential in her sport. It also helps her to grab movie scripts and well, the glamour girl has already signed a Tamil movie Irumbhu Kuthirai (Iron Horse) for a small role.

Doesn’t she think that movies can distract her from racing? “I am used to multitasking from an early age. Even now, I run an academy of car and bike racing for women, so why not movies considering I have so many friends in the film industry? Though it is more of a guest appearance, but it is fine with me. I don’t want to push myself without knowing anything from the first film. The next one will be a big one,” promises Alisha.

Though Formula One is not in her scheme of things due to financial reasons at present, she feels Indian government should recognise it as a sport for things to fall in place. From her end, she will support till her last breath producing more woman racers.

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