Karthik Tharani wins 2014 Polo R Cup

  • Dec 15, 2014
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Dominant round 4 gives Tharani the win and cup in spectacular turn of fortunes

Karthik Tharani wins 2014 Polo R Cup

The Volkswagen Polo R Cup wrapped up with intense racing in the final round of the season at the Buddh International Circuit under overcast conditions. Karthik Tharani began the weekend 70 points behind the leader of the Championship, Karminder Pal Singh but by the end of day one with two races completed he had shaved the lead to 33 points with one race to go. Here’s how the weekend panned out.

Race one began with an incident on turn one on lap one. Anshul Shah in car number 14 went a bit too much on the inside approaching turn one, went on the grass and as soon as he came back on track, the right front tyre suddenly found grip as he braked into the corner. With the entire pack trying to squeeze through, there was little space for Anshul who had already lost control of his car. The toppling number 14 took out Yatin Magoo and Lee Keshav in the process and a DNF for Lee took him out of championship contention. With most of the race driven behind the safety car, race one turned out to be a dampener. But making most of the remaining three laps as the safety car pulled into the pit lane, Karthik Tharani cemented his first win of the weekend and inched closer to Karminder who finished fourth in race one. Anshul Shah was called in by the stewards after the race and was banned from participating in the remaining two races.

Anshul Shah topples his car at the Volkswagen Polo R Cup

A constant drizzle delayed the start of race two as mechanics switched the cars to wet weather tyres. Drivers were determined to keep the race incident free but with slippery conditions, it wasn’t going to be an easy task. With little experience of driving in the wet, race two was a cautious affair over anything else. Guest driver Ameya Bafna started third under a rolling start and made his way up, taking the lead in lap two and holding to the chequered flag. Tharani took second place but earned full points as Ameya was the guest driver. He moved up to second in the championship as Bonnie Thomas slipped to third. Tharani was now 33 points being Karminder who finished fourth again.

Race two and three were completely in the wet

Race three again started with wet weather tyres on a damp track and Karthik Tharani started on pole. He needed a win to clinch the championship but things didn’t start as well as he would have liked. Lee Keshav took the lead early in the race. Tharani then got the race lead back a few laps into the race as Lee slipped down to third. Ameya Bafna was chasing Tharani right through the race but there was a comfortable gap for the next few laps. In the penultimate lap though, Bafna had closed into Tharani on the start-finish straight and as they moved up to turn three on the last lap, both were side-by-side with Bafna holding the inside line. Tharani lost the lead but pulled through to finish the race, possibly knowing that he will still gain full points for the race with Bafna’s guest driver status. 

Karminder finished eighth scoring a total of 347 points in the season, 11 behind Tharani’s 358 points. Karthik Tharani was crowned champion. A good third race for Bonnie Thomas helped him hold on to third position in the championship.

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