The official practice sessions commenced on Friday starting with vigorous exercises for the Micromax, junior and senior karters. Arjun Maini and Abha Mankar were the most popular names in the racing circuit as they burned the tarmac with their superb driving skills. The narrow width of the circuit had high risks of accidents and we were on alert at all times. Nine year old Krishna’s vehicle crashed badly and he had to forego the event with a dislocated shoulder. The Polo cup drivers also took a few practice rounds to get a feel of the circuit. Alisha Abdullah was the only female among the 20 short listed racers of the Polo cup event and her name figured on the list with 96.5 points.
It was inspiring to watch National Rally champion, Mr. Hari Singh and German car stunter, Mr. Ronni practicing for their stunt display on Saturday Morning. They pulled out smooth and amazing drifts on their Volkswagen Polos that are truly beautiful and powerful machines. The qualifying session for the karters and racers began after that and we were on full alert for the possibility of crashes. Two senior karters crashed into each other when I was on my flag marshalling duty and the control was informed immediately. I handed over the yellow flag to my assistant to wave to other karters and rushed forward to help with my team. The organizers had put in safety measures of international standards as the safety team was truly efficient and the ambulance reached the spot within twenty five seconds. We feared the worst as senior Karter Mohit Ahuja wasn’t moving al all, but luckily Doctors confirmed that he was fit to race the next day. The Polo qualifying sessions saw a spin out and a crash but the drivers were fortunately unharmed.
The main day of the first ever Volkswagen Polo Cup 2010 held in India, was graced by Mr.Suresh Kalmadi and bollywood actress Soha Ali Khan. Incidentally, this was the first time, she has ever been the Chief Guest of such an event. More than 10000 spectators turned up and it was quite an uphill task for the organizers to manage such an excited crowd. Deutschlander Ronni and Mr.Hari Singh kept the crowd captivated by their mind-boggling stunt driving. The morning began with a parade of the Polo Racers around the circuit followed by Polo Cup Race One. The race consisted of 15 laps with each lap approximately taking one and half minutes to complete. Overtaking on this circuit seemed to be almost impossible as there were eleven 90 degree tight corners. 22 year old Sailesh Bolisetti sailed through the tight circuit with expert precision and achieved the winning position in both Race One and Race Two with the latter taking place at the end of the Polo Cup event. 
Sailesh who hails from Chennai clocked the timing for the fastest lap in car number one(1:36.181s; 75.2 km/h). Saran Vikram from Chennai and Kartik Shankar from Delhi achieved the next two positions in Race One . In Race Two, Kartik Shankar stood second and Mohd. Fahad Kutty from Mumbai stood third. A few incidents like Alisha Abdullah's spin out on car number 24 and Mohd Fahad Kutty’s tyrewall scrape made the race more exciting for the Puneri spectators. Mohd.Fahad Kutty also got a 15 second penalty for overtaking on a yellow flag which made Kartik Shankar achieve third place in Race One.
Abha Mankar (15), the spunky lass from Pune of Team Red Rooster’s stood out like a shining beacon and was winner in the junior category of the 7th JK Tyre Indian National Rotax Max Karting Championship which was conduced in the afternoon. She was the only female competitor in her category and she beat the boys by a good margin with a timing of 09:41:230s and achieved a great podium finish. This was the first time a Karting Championship was conducted on a street circuit and was a season opener. Dhruv Mohite (09:41:957s) from Team Mohites and Arjun Maini (09:42:079s) from Team Red Rooster’s stood second and third respectively in the 15 lap race.
The winner of the 20 lap seniors karting category was Chittesh Mandody from Team Mohite’s with a timing of (12:45:561s) followed by Parth Ghorpade (12:45:892s) and Vishnu Prasad (13:00:275s) both from Team Amaron..
The final 20 racers of the Polo Cup will compete in a series of races till December 2010 in various cities. They will also get an opportunity to develop their racing careers by getting sponsorships to compete in Foreign racing championships. The racing calendar of the VW Polo Cup is as follows
Source: Volkswagen http://www.polocup.in/
It was surprising to see that a majority of the Racers and Motorsport officials were from Tamil Nadu. It seems that most of the speed demons originate from down south maybe because they have two well designed racing tracks i.e Kari Motor speedway in Coimbatore and the Chennai track in Irungattukottal at their disposal.
I must add that it was a very well organized event by MASA and being a part of the team helped us to understand the trials and tribulations one has to go through to organize an event on such a grand scale keeping in mind the safety of the racers as well as designing the circuit ergonomically. Mr.Shreekant Apte and Mr. Harish, the Chief Marshall made sure that every requirement of the Marshall’s were met and at the same time ensured that security kept the over excited crowd at bay.
It was a unique experience and quite different from just sitting in the Media lounge and watching the race on the final day and noting down the race results. Next year, I am surely going to Marshall again for the upcoming Formula Grand Prix in India. It is really gratifying to know that Pune has figured on the race map in four wheeler motorsports by successfully hosting the inaugural race of the first ever Volkswagen Polo Cup in India on the specially designed circuit at the Sri Shiv Chatrapati Sports Complex at Balewadi, Pune.
No comments:
Post a Comment