Polo Cup drivers selected

Volkswagen earlier surprised us all with the announcement of Polo-Cup for India. The single-make race series will take place between May and December this year. The Race Polo was displayed at the Auto Expo along with the Polo earlier this year. This one of a kind race will prove beneficial to the brand as well as the budding Schumachers in the country. Some of the Indian drivers like Ashwin Sunder and Aditya Patel have already experienced the championship in Europe though.
It is the first time something like this is happening. We have seen open-wheel series but this is something new and more special.
The drivers for the Polo-Cup were selected by a team of 8 people which incuded one driver selector and coach from Germany Polo Cup, two Indian driver coaches (from Volkswagen & JK Tyre) and one FMSCI representative, and some of the big names from Indian Motorsports like Akbar Ebrahim, Farhan Vora, and  Rayomand Banerji. Over 1100 aspiring drivers tried their luck, out of which 20 got lucky. Strict rules made sure that only the best of the lot get to race. The selection process started in March and ended mid-May. The enterants were divided in two groups- experienced racers and first-timers. Two rounds of selection reduced the number from 1100 to just 45. Two more rounds of selection, first being a go-karting session followed by another round where the narrowed down drivers were given a chance to drive the Race Polo. The 20 drivers who have made it to the final list will be participating in their first event in Pune on 30th of May after their usual 2 day practice and qualify sessions. The next five races will take place in Chennai and Coimbatore.

Following is the final list of drivers for the race-

Sr. No

 

First Name

 

Last Name

 

Date of Birth

 

City

1

Saran

Vikram

06/08/1990

Chennai

2

Parth

Ghorpade

20/08/1993

Kolhapur

3

Sahil

Shelar

11/02/1989

Pune

4

Karthik

Shankar

20/12/1986

Hyderabad

5

Sailesh

Bolisetti

28/09/1988

Vishakhapatnam

6

Vishnu

Prasad

18/08/1993

Chennai

7

Alisha

Abdullah

24/07/1989

Chennai

8

Mohammad

Fahadkutty

27/09/1988

Mumbai

9

Samyak

Shah

17/01/1992

Pune

10

Mohit

Ahuja

18/11/1992

Mumbai

11

Jayprasanth

Venkat

08/08/1987

Coimbatore

12

Anthony

George

20/11/1985

Kochin

13

Gurniaz

Mann

09/12/1987

Mumbai

14

vikash

Anand

13/06/1994

Chennai

15

Gokul

Krishna

01/12/1987

Chennai

16

Munjal

Savla

11/09/1988

Mumbai

17

Ameya

Bafana

21/12/1994

Mumbai

18

Oshan

Kothadiya

27/01/1988

Pune

19

Saurav

Bandopadhyaya

28/06/1989

Mumbai

20

Imran

Majid

24/05/1987

Mumbai

Race Polo will use a 1.6-liter R4 common rail diesel (CRD) engine which flatouts at 180kmph. This track-only car will be shod with race-only JK Tyres. A roll cage, race-spec suspension, stripped-out interiors will make it a proper race car.
Polo Cup India which started as a tiny idea in October 2008, has finally materialised and India will witness one of the world-class race series as the Polo Cup debuts this month.

polo_cup

The schedule and other details will be available soon.

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