“It would be great if we can have international exposure coming into India,” says Sanam Sekhon on drifting in India

Getting a car to drift is an art in itself, and Sanam Sekhon, widely regarded as India’s drift king, is highly skilled when it comes to getting a car sideways in style. Earlier this year, Sanam set a new Guinness World Record earlier this year for the highest altitude drift by a car at 5,798 metres (19,023 ft) at Umling La Pass in Ladakh, behind the wheel of his tuned Lexus GS300 on July 31 – and we had a conversation with the man himself post the record-setting drift.

Speaking about the story behind the record attempt at Umling La, Sanam explained that he had always been travelling to the mountains, and very often, he wondered about getting his drift car here. The team at JK Tyre were equally excited about the idea, and thus the seeds were planted for a drift record attempt in the mountains. This was easier said than done as drifting at Umling La would mean battling against low oxygen levels and sub-zero temperatures as well as road surfaces that would be unpredictable. But the team at JK Tyre are always up for a good challenge, which started with getting the Lexus drift car started at Umling La in the first place.

Sanam knew that the car wouldn’t offer the same levels of performance at such an extreme altitude, which is why the tuner who had originally worked on the Lexus had been flown in from Thailand and was a part of the record attempt crew. “The car actually did not start once we got there. It was running very rich, so it just did not budge at all,” he said. Getting the car tuned for Umling La’s conditions took about an hour and a half, and once that was done, the record attempts were underway. But it was not like there weren’t any further challenges.

“The place we had finalised where we were going to do the record, it was really bumpy, and we were not really prepared for it, that it would be this bad. We had to change the suspension, we had to lower the tyre pressure on certain corners a lot. But that said, I was really amazed that the tyres held up really well, because at one point we were running at 10 PSI. Because we had to carry a lot of speed and there was no grip on the ground, the only grip we could get was from the tyres, and they held up very well,” said Sanam. Tyres are essential to driving performance, and even more crucial when it comes to drifting, which is why the Lexus was equipped with JK Tyre’s Levitas XTREME tyres. Sanam points out that the tyres they were running were absolutely stock, and the only thing the team did was monitor the tyre pressures.

Sanam and the JK Tyre team spent 6 to 8 hours at Umling La on their first day, perfecting the setup for the car and putting in a couple of drift runs, but none were satisfactory. “It was so jumpy over there. This was semi-rally, semi-drifting to be honest. It was not at all smooth. I have a photo where my car is doing a wheelie and it's about 1 to 2 ft up. The front is really high. It was more like a rally drift sort of thing.”

On the following day however, the team would nail the record. “I’m absolutely thrilled to hold this record, but honestly, I couldn’t have done it without my fantastic team. We knew what we were getting into and were both mentally and physically prepared, but the oxygen levels and altitude really tested us. Just running around and managing things up there was tough and we even had ambulances on standby. Getting everything in place, a 20-21 member crew, our tuner flying in from Thailand, and ensuring a steady fuel supply was a challenge in itself.

Speaking about the rise of the drifting culture in India, Sanam said, “I just hope this discipline goes to a higher level where it's still growing in the country and it reaches to a level where we can have a lot of people coming out of this country with great skills. But it has to be supported by a lot of people for this to become a thing.” He went on to add, “It would be great if we can have international exposure coming into India. We do have some potential here and there. But that again has to be brushed up for Formula Drift or for regional drifting coming into the country. I just hope the recognition comes to a point where there is a different category and drift events all along the year. It's not only like if there's an autocross we will have drifting also. I feel drifting should be an individual event, and that's how I think it will grow.”

We concluded our conversation by asking Sanam about his future plans and upgrades to his Lexus GS300 drift car, and he responded by saying, “It's a money pit – and the more money you put in, the spicier it gets! I'm probably going to make it into a four-seater drift taxi with some bucket seats at the back also. That'll take some time and probably I'll have another car where I can only have two seats, like a different Pro car. But we'll probably put four seats into this and take it to different shows.” Ever since we covered Sanam’s Lexus drift car in the TUNED section of this magazine, we’ve been awestruck by it in action, and seeing Sanam setting records on a global stage is definitely a proud moment for Indian motorsport.