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- Apr 12, 2024
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Think of Indians competing in international level motorsport, to most, only two names crop up – Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok. And while it is a sad (and true) fact that the international motorsport rostrums are not overflowing with Indian names, one can’t really overlook the new generation of youngsters who have taken their racing talents to the world arena. Chief amongst these youngsters at the moment is Sailesh Bolisetti. The 23-year old from Vishakhapatnam had already made quite a name for himself in the Indian Touring Car class of JK National Racing Championship piloting the venerable Maruti Suzuki Esteem.
In a journey of racing tin tops that started in 2008, Sailesh finished third in the Indian Touring Car championship in 2009, and in 2010, he followed that up with a hard and closely fought second place finish in the same class. But 2010 held another feather in the cap for Sailesh, as he also competed in the inaugural season of the Volkswagen Polo Cup India – a racing series designed to propel young talent from Indian into the global motorsport arena. And it was here that the lad was crowned the first Polo Cup India champion and got a sponsored seat in the 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco-R Cup in Germany. In his first ever international racing season, Sailesh managed a points-scoring finish in every race and finished fifteenth in the overall standings.
His improvements here got him noticed by racing teams from around the world, and electing to not compete one more year in the Scirocco-R Cup, Sailesh found himself driving for the Lotus Sport UK team this year in the GT4 class of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship. The British GT Championship is one of Europe’s premier touring car championships, and should serve as the perfect launching ramp for the young lad to make it big in the top level of touring car championships such as DTM and Le Mans. And of course, the car Sailesh is driving is nothing short of a proper world class GT racer – a mid-engine Lotus Evora GT with a naturally aspired 4.0-litre V6 motor that makes 355bhp and 445Nm of torque.
Even now, the Vizag-lad is one event old in the championship, and already he has shown his mettle through some remarkable driving. In the wet and tricky qualifying session at Oulton Park in the UK, Sailesh was only able to bring his Evora into fifth position in the GT4 class. But come race day, with a bit of wet-weather driving experience under his belt, Sailesh and his teammate Phil Glew raced to a well-deserved second place finish in the first race of the weekend. Even in the face of stiff competition from seasoned veterans from the BTCC and other international championships in the second race, Sailesh did well to keep his cool and bring his Evora home in another second place finish.
With six more rounds to go in the British GT Championship this year, things are shaping up mighty well for Sailesh and the Lotus Sport UK team, which is already rather pleased with the lad’s performance. Now all we can seem to do is wait with anticipation as the season progresses and send him all our best wishes in the hope of him doing the country proud on the global motor racing arena.
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