PRESS RELEASE Vishnu Prasad crowned Volkswagen Polo R Cup 2011 Champion

Automotive Modifications | Admin | November 28, 2011 at 9:29 am

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PRESS RELEASE

Vishnu Prasad crowned Volkswagen Polo R Cup 2011 Champion
• Oshan Kothadiya is the runner-up in his first ever full season of racing
• Veteran Sunny Sidhu wins the final race
Chennai, November 27, 2011 – Vishnu Prasad was crowned Volkswagen Polo R Cup
2011 Champion after an action packed race finale at Irungattukottai Race Track,
Sriperumbudur, Chennai. For the second year in a row the championship came down
to the last race with Oshan Kothadiya securing the runners-up spot.
Guest driver Sunny Sidhu won the final race with a time of 19:48.996 minutes, while
international woman driver Maiken Rasmussen, who started 18th on the grid, fought
through the field to finish in 2nd position, just 1.220 seconds behind the winner. Mihir
Dharkar who started in third position in race two drove hard and managed to finish in
third place, 0.276 seconds after Maiken. Champion Vishnu Prasad finished fourth,
while championship contenders’ Oshan Kothadiya and Avdumber Hede finished in 5th
and 6th position respectively.
Sunny Sidhu led from the start and was followed closely by Maiken Rasmussen, who had a
brilliant start from 18th on the grid, and Mihir Dharkar for the entire race, with neither driver
close enough to make a move. Maiken Rasmussen is only the second woman driver to finish
on the podium, and in only her second visit to the circuit. The wet track made the conditions
very slippery but also made for great racing with the top 7 drivers being separated by less
then 5 seconds.
The last round of Polo R Cup definitely turned out to be an eventful one as championship
contender Rahil Noorani was given the black and orange flag for a hanging bumper thus
ending his championship hopes. This made it easier for Vishnu as all he had to do was finish
in the top 5 to seal the title.
Polo R Cup 2011 champion, Vishnu Prasad said, “I am thrilled to win the 2011 Volkswagen
Polo R Cup Championship in what has been an excellent season for me. This year has been
really hard as the competition has been so evenly matched. I would like to thank Volkswagen
for organizing a great championship and for all the help they have provided me with over the
year. The car has been magnificent to drive all season long and all credit must go to the
team. My main aim for the race was to finish ahead of my rivals and not try anything risky,
which I managed to do.”
Winner of Race Two, Sunny Sidhu said, “I am very thankful to Volkswagen for giving me this
opportunity to race at the Volkswagen Polo R Cup. It has been a wonderful experience and
the Race Polo is a well made car and it handled really well. I would like to congratulate the
champion and wish him all the best for his racing career.”
PRESS RELEASE
Page 2 of 3
Mr. Prithviraj Siddappa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India, said, “It has been a great
season and the last race has been one of the most memorable ones, thanks to the presence
of international drivers and veteran race driver Sunny Sidhu. The fact that the championship
was not won until the last race made the Championship even more exciting. I would like to
thank the efforts made by my whole team to make this a highly successful season.”
Results of Race Two of Round Six:
Position Car Number Driver Total Time
1. 30 Sunny Sidhu 00:19:48.996
2. 26 Maiken Rasmussen 00:19:50.219
3. 19 Mihir Dharkar 00:19:50.495
4. 22 Vishnu Prasad 00:19:51.318
5. 14 Oshan Kothaiya 00:19:51.641
6. 2 Avdumber Hede 00:19:52.245
7. 15 Ajay Kini* 00:19:52.432
8. 6 Munjal Savla 00:19:54.749
9. 4 Sourav Bandhyopadhyay 00:19:56.180
10. 5 Laurence Taur 00:19:56.704
11. 12 Donovan Vaz 00:20:07.524
12. 24 Chitesh Mandody 00:20:07.887
13. 31 Farhan Vohra 00:20:10.272
14. 20 Rahil Noorani* 00:20:14.648
15. 1 Vidit Jain 00:20:26.064
16. 7 Aditya Pawar 00:20:26.541
17. 23 Fan Huaying 00:20:37.408
18. 3 Achintya Mehrotra 00:20:44.955
19. 11 Prateek Dalal 00:20:22.054 (13
laps)
* Under Investigation
Position Car Number Driver Total Time
20. 16 Alisha Abdullah 00:05:38.210(DNF)
21. 27 Xie Jiawu 00:05:39.252(DNF)
22. 8 Angad Singh Matharoo 00:05:50.283(DNF)
23. 17 Abhinav Aditya Agarwal -
DNF : (Did Not Finish)
Thanks to its proven concept of promoting young talent abroad, the Polo R Cup enjoys the
reputation of being an ideal stepping stone to enter professional racing. Building on its
success with the debut Polo Cup India last year, Volkswagen Motorsport will continue to
make Polo R Cup the premier touring car championship in the country.
PRESS RELEASE
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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
About Volkswagen Motorsport
Volkswagen is committed to broad-scale motor sport as in internationally staged cross-country rally
racing programmes in countries including Germany, Europe and the United States apart from other
countries in Asia and has a long tradition of promoting young talent. Following the legendary Formula
V as of 1966 the brand, in 1976, sponsored a one-make touring car cup for the first time. Among
others, the Scirocco Cup produced drivers like the subsequent Formula 1 racer Manfred Winkelhock.
In 1977 the first-generation Golf GTI replaced the Scirocco as the cup vehicle and remained the
popular competition car for a generation of young racers up to 1982. In 1983, the second-generation
Polo followed as the cup vehicle – initially using the 88-hp normally aspirated engine version and, from
1986, the 112-hp compressor engine. At the relaunch in 1998, Volkswagen presented the Lupo, which
offered top-class sport at fair prices, as well as the Volkswagen New Beetle Cup.
The year of 1998 stands for an all-new concept in the world of racing. To this day, this new concept
featuring centrally fielded vehicles and car swapping among the drivers guarantees maximum equality
of opportunity. In 2004 the 150-hp Polo replaced the small Lupo as the cup vehicle and the concept
was subjected to further refinement. The Polo Cup’s success story is closely linked to the DTMDeutsche
Tourenwagen Meisterschaft. The premier league of touring car racing has evolved into a real
crowd-puller and is envisaged as a concrete career goal by many junior racers.
The commitment encompasses the internationally renowned Dakar Rally. Diesel and bio natural gas
powered as eco-conscious alternatives to conventional spark ignition engines and clever down–sizing
are the core elements of this strategy. Volkswagen is already in the process of putting the aims of ecoconscious
motorsport of the future into action. Bio natural gas engines in the Scirocco R-Cup and at
the Nürburgring 24 Hours have already proved that eco-consciousness and top-calibre racing.
Volkswagen consistently banks on production-based technology and the conservation of resources. In
an overall assessment of racing operations and logistics for the Scirocco R-Cup Volkswagen has
achieved a reduction of CO2 emissions by 80 per cent.
Volkswagen Group India Communications
Contact: Alexander Skibbe / Pradnya Joshi Chaudhury
Phone: +91-9765404647 / +91-9764999349
E-mail: alexander.skibbe@volkswagen.co.in / pradnya.chaudhury@volkswagen.co.in
20:20 MSL
Contact: Atul Shah / David Vaz
Phone: +91-9960255829 / +91-9322652611
E-mail: atul.shah@2020msl.com / david.vaz@2020msl.com