TheSportsCampus

Race One of Round Two of the Volkswagen Polo R Cup proved to be an action packed drama which unfolded in a three-part race following two crashes. Ameya Walavalkar won the shortened 8-lap first race followed by Rahil Noorani and Mihir Dharkar. Aggregate of all three parts of the race was taken to reach the final race classification. Pole sitter Ameya had three restarts to tackle before heading home in a total aggregated time of 10:34.617 seconds. Following him were Rahil Noorani and Mihir Dharkar who were 7.346 seconds and 18.327 seconds behind the leader.

Ameya led from pole followed by Sandeep Kumar and Rahil Noorani. On lap three Prashanth Tharani Singh clashed with Ajay Kini resulting in the first red flag as the car was stuck on the race track. At the first restart championship leader Alisha Abdullah was punted off in the first corner thereby bringing out the second red flag. At the second restart Ameya managed to take the lead again and stayed ahead till the chequered flag, comfortably ahead of Rahil and Mihir. Sandeep Kumar, who was sent to the back of the grid before the second restart owing to non-compliance of the rule pertaining to changing of a tyre within the stipulated 3 minute time. He drove brilliantly to pass 13 cars and eventually finished in fourth position.

Race Two saw Diego Duez, who was on pole, lead from start to finish before being handed a 20 seconds penalty for jumping the start. This gave second placed finisher, Donovan Vaz, his first podium and win in the Volkswagen Polo R Cup with Sandeep Kumar and Ameya Walavalkar behind him. While Diego and Donovan pulled away at the front, Angad Singh Matharoo held off a field of 7 cars for over 10 laps. He was eventually passed by both Sandeep and Ameya as they battled for the podium spot. Donovan finished the race in 19:31:146 with Sandeep and Ameya finishing 1.786 seconds and 2.014 seconds behind respectively.

"It's been a fantastic weekend for me with pole position and two podium finishes. The first race was tough even though I was leading the entire time. The two restarts were particularly challenging but I managed to pull away both times which played a big role in my win. In the second race finishing third after starting eighth on the grid is a great result as my aim was to finish on the podium. I have been very consistent this weekend and I hope to continue this for the rest of the season," said Ameya.

"It's an unbelievable feeling to win my first Polo R Cup race. Yesterday qualifying didn't go too well but today's result has more than made up for it. I would like to thank the entire Volkswagen Motorsport team and especially my mechanics for the great support. I hope I can carry on this form for the rest of this season"