PoloDriver

Sailesh Bolsetti was crowned the inaugural Volkswagen Polo Cup India 2010 champion during the final round at the Irungattukottai race track in Chennai over the weekend of 18-19 December. Bolsetti was second in the leaderboard standings before Round 6, 26 points behind potential champion Parth Ghorpade with 359 points, but a stand-out drive from the 22-year old from Vishakhapatnam. Going into the final race of the season with a 2-point deficit from Ghorpade, Bolisetti’s sixth place finish in race two was enough to take the series championship, after a mistake from Ghorpade left him struggling in 11th position.

Qualifying for the first race left Bolisetti in second place behind Vishnu Prasad in pole position, while Ghorpade was behind in third. A false start in the first race gave Ghorpade a 30-second time penalty, from which he never recovered. A tyre-to-tyre battle for the top three spots resulted in Prasad taking the top spot with a time of 00: 24: 50: 051, with Bolisetti in second place, and Ghorpade rounding out the podium. However, Ghorpade’s penalty pushed him down to ninth place, promoting fourth place Karthik Shankar to the podium.

As is customary, the grid for the second race was a reverse of race one for the first eight drivers, meaning Munjal Savla, Vikash Anand and Sahil Shelar were pushed to the front of the track. Rookie Salva maintained a good lead, but Anand and Shelar struggled to keep up during the latter half of the race, enabling Ghorpade and Prasad to overtake and chase the leader. Falling behind, Bolisetti and then Ghorpade gave way to Prasad and Shankar who tailed Savla, who was amazing the enthusiastic crowd with his consistent speed. Consistency paid off, and Salva clinched first place, with Shankar 3.145 seconds behind, and Prasad a close third.

Bolisetti meanwhile, finished sixth ahead of Ghorpade from Kolhapur, who came way down the field in eleventh. Ghorpade’s  misfortune at Chennai enhanced Bolisetti’s standing for championship title with an aggregate score of 411 points. Ghorpade had to settle for the runner-up position with a total of 403 points, while Chennai’s Prasad was third with 370 points. Commenting on the eventful first season of the Volkswagen Polo Cup India 2010, Prithviraj Siddappa, Head of Motorsports, Volkswagen India, said: ‘I am very happy that the first Polo Cup season here in India was a great success, and I can confidently say that this years championship has proved that this our Cup series can infact produce and nurture good drivers.’

[Sources: cardekho.com and zigwheels.com. Video: Autocar India]

Parth Ghorpade from Kolhapur is the new leader of the 2010 Volkswagen Polo Cup India championship after Round 5 of the series at the Irungattukottai race track in Chennai. Earning 108 points over the weekend of 27-28 November, Ghorpade’s total now stands at 359 points. Former leader Sailesh Bolisetti is now in second place with 333 points, while Chennai driver Vishnu Prasad rounds out the top three with 277 points. Close races were the order of the day at Chennai, with Ghorpade winning the first, beating Sahil Shelar by 0.481 seconds. The second race was won by Prasad, who started in sixth place on a reverse grid.

Ghorpade has been the silent contender throughout the Volkswagen Polo Cup India’s inaugural season. The 17-year old has worked his way up the leaderboard through hard work and consistent wins, starting from sixth position after the first two rounds of the championships. Commenting on his first-place position, Ghorpade said: ‘At this point in the season, being the leader of the pack is very exciting. The last few races have been very successful for me and I hope I can keep the momentum going right till the end of the final round.’

The first season of the Volkswagen Polo Cup India has been an exciting series for both the drivers and their fans, and with only one round to go, spectators can be assured to see a fight to the finish. With a difference of only 26 points between first and second place and an even smaller difference of 7 points between third and fourth place, the results of the championship will come down to the final races of Round 6 on 18-19 December at Chennai.

Volkswagen India & JK Tyre also staged a special Ladies Race during the Round 5 of the Volkswagen Polo Cup India at Chennai, with rally driver Nawaz Sandhu thrilling spectators to win the 7-lap all-ladies race, recording a best lap time of 1:14.623, at a speed of 178.5 km/h. The 2010 Volkswagen Polo Cup India is run by Volkswagen India Motorsport in conjunction with JK Tyres. The field of 20 young racers drive identical and centrally-prepared 129bhp TDI Polo Cup cars.

Twice on the podium, with each driver having achieved one victory and one third place – the tally of Mathew Hodges and Kyle Barnes remained equal at rounds 15 and 16 of the 2010 Volkswagen Polo Cup South Africa on 30 October. Hodges secured victory on the 3.921-kilometre track in the south-east of South Africa in the first race while Kyle Barnes finished third. In the second race Hodges and Barnes swapped positions. Second place in the first race went to Miguel Pasqualli and to Graham Donker in the second.

The season victory went to Hodges in the PG Glass Polo, marking a second consecutive national championship title in the single-make Polo series for Hodges. The 2010 Volkswagen Polo Cup South Africa will contest its season finale Kyalami on 27 November. The series is similar to the other racing Polo championships run in Europe and India. Just as in those series, the one-make format highlights new young driving talent. As many as 30 drivers regularly take to the track in technically identical cars, full grids ensure close-fought races.

The BP Volkswagen rally team are celebrating their sixth consecutive national rally title after the Toyota Dealer Rally Gauteng on 15-16 October. The event was the final of an eight-round national championship that has proved one of the most punishing and challenging in recent memory. Not content with haranguing competitors throughout the year, the 2010 season had a final challenge and finish in store. The drama started early on day one when, in the third stage of the event, the championship leaders crashed out of contention. Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson were less than 500 metres into stage three, a reverse of the fearsome Gerotek Hillclimb course, when they went sliding off the stage into the bush, bringing their championship campaign to an abrupt end.

The focus of the event then shifted to Kuun and Hodgson’s rivals Johnny Gemmell and Drew Sturrock in their S2000 Castrol Toyota Auris. With a 21-point difference between the two, Gemmell and Sturrock needed to win the event if Gemmell was to win the championship. Tension throughout the service park ran high as the stage reports came in. It wasn’t going to go Gemmell’s way though as the two Ford entries were fighting hard and eventually claimed a one-two podium with Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich claiming victory and Conrad Rautenbach and Peter Marsh in second place. Gemmell’s teammate Leeroy Poulter and his navigator, Robert Paisley, claimed third place while Gemmell and Sturrock finished fourth.

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The seventh race weekend of the Volkswagen Polo Cup South Africa on 1-3 October ended in a double victory by Matthew Hodges. In the first race at Killarney the 23-year-old title defender prevailed against Devin Robertson with a 1.198-second lead. In the second race he beat Kyle Barnes to the chequered flag by just 0.452 seconds. Hodges therefore continues to extend his lead of the standings in the popular Volkswagen one-make cup. Round 9 of the Volkswagen Polo Cup South Africa is at the BMSC East London Grand Prix circuit on 30-31 October. The 2010 Volkswagen Polo Cup South Africa series is similar to the other racing Polo championships run in Europe and India. Just as in those series, the one-make format highlights new young driving talent. As many as 30 drivers regularly take to the track in technically identical cars, full grids ensure close-fought races.