Drifting
Talha Bin Azhar: It Takes A Thousand Tires To Succeed
He had a dream, a dream that costed him everything, a dream that gave him the world. Pakistan’s youngest professional drifter – Talha Bin Azhar, shares his tireless journey of never giving up at odds.
Every great dream starts with a dreamer – someone with the patience, the strength, the passion, and the right amount of crazy in them to overcome all obstacles that come along the way. For Talha Bin Azhar, this dream was to live a life surrounded by cars and drift his way to success while the crowd cheers for him.
But, like every dream, this dream came at a cost. It took him time, patience, consistency, and every last penny he had to persevere. He followed something when everybody warned him against it, a sport that never reached mainstream in the country before. He followed his heart.
He listened to the voice, that whisper you hear when you close your eyes. And when you have a good heart, that voice can never, ever lie. In Talha’s heart, that voice developed fifteen years ago – when he was just a young boy – and turned into a desire that drove him to do everything he wanted to do.
Talha Bin Azhar
© Zain Jafar
Today, the 23-year-old Azhar is a professional drifter making himself, his family, and his country proud on the international stage. Getting so good at what he does is a journey that would take volumes to cover, but we met him to uncover the story of one of the best drifters the country has ever seen.
Talha was living in Oman with his family back in 2006. Like many boys that age, he would watch the all-time famous show ‘Top Gear’. He loved it, but unlike many other boys, the show inspired him in a unique, eccentric way – it just stuck with him as he grew old. He never left watching the show, at least not until he stepped into an actual car to experience the real thing. That was when he knew what he wanted.
He was just ten, only allowed to sit in the car and experience the gear shifts. How much does a ten-year old Pakistan boy know about drifting? At that time, he had no idea that he would choose it as his profession later down the road, but the events that unfolded through the next eight years gave him a direction.
In 2011, Talha came to Pakistan for the first time, and it took him two years to adjust to the local lifestyle and make friends. He completed his elementary and high school in Pakistan. During this time, he started exploring the racing events that happened in Pakistan back then.
At the age of 17, he heard about a racing event called Jeepers held at the Walton Airport in Lahore. He instantly decided to head there with his friends and managed to slip in to watch the races.
Talha Bin Azhar
© Zain Jafar
“It was a magical event – I was watching the cars pass and the drifts. The only thing in my mind was what would the driver in the car be thinking about at this very moment? What was he going through?”
He was captivated in the moment. Next year, he decided to return to the event with a team and a car, and that’s how we started practicing and taking part in the event. He then joined a Pakistani team known as ‘Red Line’ and built his first ever Suzuki Cultus car with a 1.6-liter engine that gave him the perfect power to weight ratio for the races.
Soon after he entered the racing community of Pakistan, he was introduced as the new racer in town who is here to trouble everyone at the tracks. After getting a hang of the local racing community the same year, he got the opportunity to meet the king of drifting and Red Bull athlete – Ahmad Daham – who was visiting Pakistan.
Ahmad Daham put his stunning new Lexus RC F Carbon Kevlar through its paces
© Red Bull MEA
Talha recalls that the excitement he felt as seeing the professional drifter right in front of him was the best thing in his entire life. Again, he caught himself wondering what would Daham be feeling right now and what would be going on in his mind?
His curiosity never faded. It was the same every time he watched any local or a professional international drifter. But with Daham, he had the opportunity to go and tell him his desire to drive on the same track as him someday.
Talha Azhar termed the event as a launchpad for drifting in Pakistan.
© Sher Azam
This pushed him a step ahead. Once he ended his high school, he decided to go abroad for higher studies. Soon after, he left for Kuala Lumpur (KL) in Malaysia where pursued his set career in cyber security. Talha feels that this was his luck taking him to the city of drifters – he knew he was there for a reason.
The first two years were just like he expected and he remained focused on his studies. However, during his second year, he had a calling. He decided to buy a car for himself for daily commute. When he went on the internet in search of a car, he came across many racing cars. Talha knew exactly what he wanted – he knew that buying a racing car instead could be his ticket and a way into the motorsport scene.
On his birthday, he requested his parents to gift him the Nissan Cefiro A31 – Talha was very much aware that this beast is more than just an affordable drift machine. Motorsport is an extreme sport, and like any parents, his parents were worried about his safety.
He had to earn it, so we made sure that his parents are convinced about his driving skills. He was compelled to practice, and through that process, he figured what he wanted to do in his life – it was racing.
He approached a local Malaysian professional racer known by the name of ‘Bulls Eye’ (BE), convincing him that he’s got what it takes and he needs access, a pathway to world’s top tier racing events. BE took him to all the racing events, be it Formula circuits, workshops or drift racing, just to give him an idea about what he is about to step into.
After five months, he had to take one of the toughest decisions of his life. BE asked him that if he wants to continue – it would cost him his time and a lot of funding. While this is where most of the people decide to give up, Talha had already set his mind to it. He went all out to pursue racing, leaving out all the luxuries and spending every penny he had on his cars.
He started off by going to the empty parking lots and practicing some donuts. A four-hour session costed him 10 tires, so he had to work with used and expired tires for practice. It was cheaper, but not cheap enough for him to sustain any of the luxuries he had in his life. It even costed him his tuition fee, but he had to do what he had to do.
After two sessions on his Cefiro, he broke his gear box when they went out of KL to practice. That was the end of Cefiro. His teacher, BE – impressed by his passion to become a racer – gave him the BMW E39 to drive. While Cefiro was a street car with rear wheel drive suitable for drifting, this was an actual built drift car.
He was able to get a hold of the car quickly and decided to buy this car. He went back, fixed his Cefiro, sold it out, and bought the BMW E39. He immediately took it to the workshop and took three months to perfectly build his BMW E39 for drifting. The suspension, engine and other parts were Nissan, while only the shell was BMW.
Talha stole the show with a splendid victory
© Zain Jafar
He was confident that if he had built the car right, he would be able to take part in the competition. After completing, he took it out for testing. Just after the first successful test, he crashed side to side at a 60kmph speed and broke the steering rack which ended its track life.
Talha had no idea what he was going to do since he was out of resources – this crash could put an end to his career. Yet, he didn’t stop there. He utilized all his resources to get himself a Nissan Silvia S14 with 500hp 2JZ engine.
After several practice rounds, he went to his first ever competition out of KL. For this race, he had to buy 20 brand new tires for which he had to partially hold his tuition fee. Before the first Novice round he broke Limited-Slip Differential (LSD) but fixed it and went on to win P2 in the race. At the starting line of the advance race, the moment he left the clutch, the LSD broke again and that was the end of competition.
INVITATION TO OIDC
After winning P2, he launched his own team TBA and soon got the invitation to Oman International Drifting Championship (OIDC). He was the first Pakistani to get the invitation of this competition. This was his lifetime achievement and a chance to get connected to the world of drifters.
He decided to go to the competition with Toyota Altezza, but there was a problem – the car he found had everything except the engine and the gear box. To build his car, he had to put in everything he earned or saved. All of that when the invitation he got was only verbal and he didn’t get any official email. Was it worth it? Should he do it? Is it stupid to throw away everything for something you’re not even sure about? Isn’t it a bit crazy?
Well, a bit of crazy is what it takes to persevere. Only the people who are passionate to the point of insanity end up doing the impossible. Spending everything over a race that isn’t even confirmed was the toughest decision of his life. He didn’t have time to wait for the email to start building as he won’t make it on time. His teacher, BE, told him that this is his chance and he must go for it. With all the faith he had in himself, he went in and started building his car.
He had to import the parts from overseas, install them in the car, get it ready for the big day, and even practice the hell out of it in just two weeks. The car was supposed to be shipped by December 6, and he completed it on November 29. He took the little time he had to test it out. He burned out the tires, put in more power, and repeated the process before shipping the car to Oman.
THE UNEXPECTED EVENT
After completing his car, the only thing left was the official email. He was yet to receive it. The only thing he could do at this point was to wait and pray, and so he did. His prayers didn’t go unanswered, and he got the email the next morning. So, along with the car, he loaded a full movable workshop with 80 tires, a spare body, and a complete tool kit.
Winners of Red Bull Kart Fight 2021
© Zain Jafar
He never expected he would reach this moment so soon. Getting to meet all the professional racers was getting him excited until two days before the event when the news broke about the championship getting postponed. For a moment, he wondered if all this was too good to me true. His fed his hopes to the point of excitement, and all of it just came down crashing like a house of cards.
With only 803 Malaysian Ringgit left to himself, he arrived back just to pay off 795 more. He had to survive with just eight bucks. He went out to places with BE and got the job of a stunt driver for a movie. He made enough to continue living, but not enough to get back to racing.
With nothing working out in his favor, he moved back to Pakistan. Upon his arrival, he got to know about the karting scene in the country. He started off by taking part in a karting event this year and later went on to race for Red Bull Kart Fight, where he smoothly secured the P1.
He soon got a signing offer from SA Gardens who had built their tracks for various motorsports.
While he couldn’t find drifting competitions in Pakistan, he was able to make it in karting and later decided to go for off-road racing. During the trials for Gwadar Rally, he finished off at a good time to get the representation of SA Gardens in the Rally.
His ultimate goal is still the drifting he left halfway in Malaysia, but he plans to go back one day and begin where he left off and represent Pakistan while he earns his name in the world of drifting.
Talha’s story teaches us a fundamental lesson in life – you may use sportscars to reach your destination, but it’s the slow and steady that actually wins the race.
Talha Bin Azhar wins Red Bull Kart Fight 2021 - Pakistan edition
