VW Vento Cup 2016: Round 1 Concludes

With the sun shining bright and spanking new cars in the pit garage, the stage was set for an exciting weekend at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. The Volkswagen Vento Cup 2016 commenced with the fitness camp and pre-season tests and it was now time for the drivers to put to use what they learnt over the last week. The drivers got some more time behind the wheel of the Vento race car in the half hour of Free Practice before Qualifying.

As the pit-lane opened, all 18 drivers went out on track with the aim of securing a good grid position for Race 1 on Sunday. But it was Ishaan Dodhiwala who clocked the fastest time of 1:10.087 to secure pole position ahead of Keith Desouza and Karminder Pal Singh. Making most of his pole position, Ishaan got off to a brilliant start and managed to retain his advantage going into C1. From there on, it was just a matter of maintaining his pace for Ishaan to take the top spot in Race 1. Karminder too got off to a brilliant start from his third place and managed to pass Keith to take second. Running in fourth, Aditya Vijay Pawar put a lot of pressure on Keith for third, but the latter kept his cool to bring home a podium driving in the Vento Cup for the first time.

Changing weather conditions resulted in a lot of chaos in the pit-lane before Race 2. With a dense cloud cover, drivers were muddled whether they should go out on slicks or wets. Just as they lined up on the grid for the start, a cloud burst forced them to return to the pits to change to wet weather tyres. Race 2 saw the first 8 drivers from qualifying reverse their grid positions. Not starting from the front of the grid didn’t hold Ishaan and Karminder back from driving an aggressive race.  

As the lights went out, Ishan and Aditya got off to a flying start immediately taking the lead. Karminder had an equally good start and managed to 3 spots in the very first lap. The No. 16 driver then pulled a brilliant move on Ishaan and Aditya, taking the inside line into the chicane to gain the lead. Karminder could easily defend his lead from Ishaan to take victory in what was an exciting Race 2. Aditya secured the last step on the podium.

Even though a lot of drivers were racing for the first time, it was surprising to see them drive an extremely clean race. With Ishaan and Karminder securing a win each in the first round, the two are currently tied at the top spot. Second round of the Volkswagen Vento Cup 2016 will bring the drivers to MMRT in Chennai from 15th-17th July.

Race 1 Results: