Karan Goenka: Fast track. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

His hero finished his last race on Sunday. He will start his first big race next month. His hero is being hailed as the best Formula One driver ever. He hopes to first burn the go-karting tracks and then do the real thing. Karan Goenka, big fan of Michael Schumacher, sure is a teenager on the fast track.

The ‘zip, zap, zoom’ boy is set to be the sole Indian representative at the World Finals of the Junior Rotax Karting Championship in Portugal, from November 14 to 18.

On Tuesday, the former student of Birla High School was back where it all began — Clown Town, off the EM Bypass, where three years ago, the speed bug bit him during a fun evening out with cousins.

“At that time, go-karting was more fun than a serious sport for me. But now, after so many races and making it to the World Finals, I definitely see the race track as my career,” said Karan, now a student of Sarala Birla Academy in Bangalore.

Home for the holidays, the first Calcuttan to head for the Junior World Finals was all praise for Narayan Karthikeyan, who revved from go-karting to Formula One.

“His example means a lot to us youngsters... Those who say he is not good enough don’t realise that he was handicapped by his team and car,” said Karan, sights set firmly on an F1 lap.

Having started as a cadet in the Rotax championships, Karan opted to move into the Junior category “to get a feel of real racing”. Now training under former F3 racer Akbar Ebrahim, he usually practises in Coimbatore, with a training stint in Malaysia thrown in. “Racing the World Finals will be an eye opener for the young guy,” said trainer Ebrahim.

But the road to the World Finals has not been smooth for the National Junior Rotax Karting Champion. Karan suffered a neck injury in an accident in the first heats in Kolhapur. He still completed the race.

'I had to finish, otherwise all my efforts in the previous rounds would have been in vain... I drove very carefully in the pre-finals and in the finals I started last but ended first,' recounted Karan, debarred from racing by the doctor till the end of the month.

As father Rajiv Goenka stood by him at Clown Town on Tuesday, Karan said: 'My parents have been extremely supportive, especially my father.'

Off the speed track, Karan is quite an all-rounder. He has won trophies in quiz, debate, dancing and painting. In his spare time he collects coins and stamps and has a quite a large collection of both. But racing is where his heart lies.

'Go-karting and racing have become immensely popular with youngsters and we get a lot of them raring to have a go,' said Sanjay Maheshwari, owner of Clown Town, boasting the 'only multi-layered karting track' in this part of the world.