By Nityaasini Sivagami
18th March: If a woman obeys all the rules they will miss the fun. At the age of nine, Himachal Pradesh’s Shriya Lohia discovered her true vocation in motorsport during a family holiday when she tried go-karting for the first time.
Addicted immediately by the rush of adrenaline, she told SheThePeople, “The adrenaline rush I got made me do it again and again.” Now 16 years old, Shriya is the first female Formula 4 Indian racer, having started her professional training under guidance from seasoned racer Mira Erda in Vadodara. (Source Hindustan Times)
With a sport-loving father, a shooting sister, and an entrepreneurial mother, Shriya was a first-generation racing woman in her family. She balanced intense schooling with the demands of racing and braved the challenges of being part of a male-dominated sport. She defeated bullying and mocking remarks and derived incentives from them to work even harder and prove her critics wrong. (Source Hindustan Times)
At the age of 11, Shriya took home the JK Tyre National Karting Championship in 2019, creating waves in the X-30 Cadet Class by winning the race in a time of slightly over 11 minutes. Her triumphs continued with the highly acclaimed Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar Award in 2022, which only encouraged her to take motorsports further in India and get more women involved in the sport. (Source Hindustan Times)
Shriya’s passion for motorsport soon surpassed her other sporting interests in tennis and basketball, showing how much she really wants to race. Good parental backup helped her change her training base from Pune to Bengaluru for far better facilities although this physically drained her and they have to travel extensively. (Source Hindustan Times)
By 2023, all of Shriya’s efforts paid off, and she was the youngest girl to compete and score points at the inaugural Indian F4 Championship with Hyderabad Blackbirds. Shriya Lohia’s journey, starting from being an early karting enthusiast to the pioneer Formula 4 driver, celebrates her perseverance, parental support, and pioneer status as a female driver in motor sports. (Source Hindustan Times)
