Volkswagen Race Polo put up a thrilling show at the Colombo Night Races on Saturday night. Polo R Cup 2011 drivers, Munjal Savla and Mihir Dharkar won race one and race two respectively. The extravaganza had many other car series participating with a crowd of over fifty thousand enjoying the race and music throughout the night. In a line-up of eleven cars, eight drivers were from India and three guest drivers from Sri Lanka.
Race One started with Munjal at the pole and leading from start to finish. Munjal had a lead of 10 seconds by the end of the race. The fight was bumper-to-bumper for the second and third positions among Mihir Dharkar (Mumbai, India), Romani Di Silva (Sri Lanka) and Aditya Patel (India; Scirocco R-cup 2011 driver). Mihir defended his position very well to finish second while Aditya finished fourth starting from the last position. Romani, the Srilankan driver, showed good driving skills but had to settle behind Mihir for the third position.
Race Two began with a reverse grid for the first four finishes of Race One. Aditya Patel began on the pole while Munjal started fourth on the grid. During the race Munjal fell back one place to fifth and tried hard to overtake Rahil in front of him. In an effort to overtake Rahil, his manoeuvre resulted in an under-steer and scrapped the barriers which resulted in a pile-up of all the cars behind him. Five cars had to be taken off the grid and the race resumed after a 10 minutes break to remove the debris from the track. At the restart, Mihir took the lead to win the race. Aditya put up a tough fight with Mihir and finished second. Avdumber Hede who finished third, put up a good fight with Rahil and Romani which proved to a good spectacle for the audience present to watch the race.
Commenting on the races, Prithviraj Siddappa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India said, “It was a great experience for Volkswagen Motorsport to participate in this special exhibition street race. It was great to see the enthusiasm and zest of the people in this country. The love for Motorsport here is comparable to any other country and we will definitely explore other opportunities like these for our Polo R Cup 2012 drivers.”
Race One Result:
Munjal Savla
Mihir Dharkar
Romani Di Silva
Aditya Patel
Avdumber Hede
Rahil Noorani
Angad Singh Matharoo
Rajvirdhan Vijaykumar
Dinesh Jayawardana
Sauvrav Bandyopadhay
Rohan Di Silva
Race Two Result:
Mihir Dharkar
Aditya Patel
Avdumber Hede
Rahil Noorani
Romani Di SIlva
Dinesh Jayawardana
DNF
Rajvirdhan Vijaykumar
Sauvrav Bandyopadhay
Angad Singh Matharoo
Rohan Di Silva
Munjal Savla
Motor sports enthusiasts interested in getting further information can log on to the website, www.polocup.in. This website displays information about Polo R Cup format, race updates and driver profiles. Follow Polo R Cup on www.facebook.com/vwpolocupIndia