Coimbatore, July 17, 2011 – Vishnu Prasad, the young driver from Chennai, put on an impressive display to win the Second race of Round two of the JK Tyre Volkswagen Polo R Cup 2011 at the Kari Motor Speedway, Coimbatore. Pune lad Oshan Kothadiya finished in second position ahead of the runner-up of race 1, Ajay Kini. This is Vishnu’s third win out of four races in the Polo R Cup 2011.
Vishnu in the #20 car started in sixth position but quickly moved up the order. For the first time this year the safety car came out after there was a collision into the second corner. This gave Vishnu an opportunity to close up with the leaders. He fought his way to get past Oshan in the tenth lap to grab the first position. He eventually took the first place in the tenth lap and never looked back. It was a great fight to the finish with Oshan pushing Rahil into a spin with three laps to go. However, both drivers continued with Oshan finishing second on the podium with a time of 19:55.490 while Ajay finished third.
Mr. Prithviraj Siddappa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India, said, “Reverse grid is always fun and exciting for the motorsports enthusiasts to watch and challenging for the drivers. It represents a good opportunity for mid-fielders and adds to the excitement of the race. I would also like to credit my technical team who did a fantastic job of preparing the car well in time for the second race.”
Vishnu Prasad expressed his happiness and said, “It feels really great to win three races out of four. I was very happy when the safety car came out. I felt the safety car and the rain were god sent. It really helped me since I have more experience racing on the wet track than my fellow racers.”
“I am really excited to finish on the podium for the first time. It was really close between Rahil and me but I am happy I managed to stay ahead. We had slight contact after the second corner but both managed to finish the race.” said Oshan.
Below are results from the 2nd race:
Position
Car Number
Driver
Total Time
22
Vishnu Prasad
19:52.823
14
Oshan Kothadiya
19:55.490
15
Ajay Kini
19:58.218
11
Prateek Dalal
19:59.671
16
Alisha Abdullah
20:01.972
20
Rahil Noorani
19:56.210
19
Mihir Dharkar
20:15.225
18
Saif Mir
20:16.187
02
Avdumber Hede
20:18.772
17
Abhinav Aditya Agarwal
20:25.409
01
Vidit Jain
20:27.268
03
Achintya Mehrotra
20:27.520
06
Munjal Savla
20:27.875
05
Lawrence Taur
20:36.992
04
Sourav Bandyopadhyay
20:48.193
12
Donovan Vaz
18:59.268
07
Aditya Pawar
18:42.904
21
Angad Singh Matharoo
16:19.971
08
Swamathia Rayen
DNF
Thanks to its proven concept of promoting young talent abroad, the Polo Cup enjoys the reputation of being an ideal stepping stone to enter professional racing. Building on its success with the debut Polo Cup India last year, Volkswagen Motorsport will continue to make Polo R Cup the premier touring car championship in the country.
Motor sports enthusiasts interested in getting further information can log on to the website, www.polocup.in. This website displays information about Polo R Cup format, race updates and driver profiles. Follow Polo R Cup on www.facebook.com/vwpolocupIndia
About Volkswagen Motorsport
Volkswagen is committed to broad-scale motor sport as in internationally staged cross-country rally racing programmes in countries including Germany, Europe and the United States apart from other countries in Asia and has a long tradition of promoting young talent. Following the legendary Formula V as of 1966 the brand, in 1976, sponsored a one-make touring car cup for the first time. Among others, the Scirocco Cup produced drivers like the subsequent Formula 1 racer Manfred Winkelhock. In 1977 the first-generation Golf GTI replaced the Scirocco as the cup vehicle and remained the popular competition car for a generation of young racers up to 1982. In 1983, the second-generation Polo followed as the cup vehicle – initially using the 88-hp normally aspirated engine version and, from 1986, the 112-hp compressor engine. At the relaunch in 1998, Volkswagen presented the Lupo, which offered top-class sport at fair prices, as well as the Volkswagen New Beetle Cup.
The year of 1998 stands for an all-new concept in the world of racing. To this day, this new concept featuring centrally fielded vehicles and car swapping among the drivers guarantees maximum equality of opportunity. In 2004 the 150-hp Polo replaced the small Lupo as the cup vehicle and the concept was subjected to further refinement. The Polo Cup’s success story is closely linked to the DTM-Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft. The premier league of touring car racing has evolved into a real crowd-puller and is envisaged as a concrete career goal by many junior racers.
The commitment encompasses the internationally renowned Dakar Rally. Diesel and bio natural gas powered as eco-conscious alternatives to conventional spark ignition engines and clever downsizing are the core elements of this strategy. Volkswagen is already in the process of putting the aims of eco-conscious motorsport of the future into action. Bio natural gas engines in the Scirocco R-Cup and at the Nürburgring 24 Hours have already proved that eco-consciousness and top-calibre racing. Volkswagen consistently banks on production-based technology and the conservation of resources. In an overall assessment of racing operations and logistics for the Scirocco R-Cup Volkswagen has achieved a reduction of CO2 emissions by 80 per cent.
Volkswagen Group India Communications
Contact: Alexander Skibbe / Pradnya Joshi Chaudhury
Phone: +91-9765404647 / +91-9764999349
E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]
20:20 MSL
Contact: Atul Shah / David Vaz
Phone: +91-9960255829 / +91-9322652611
E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]