Ishaan Dodhiwala storms to pole position for the first race of Volkswagen Vento Cup 2016

• An exceptional and a rather short qualifying stint puts Hyderabad’s Ishaan Dodhiwala on pole position for the first race of Vento Cup 2016 at Kari Motor Speedway
• Keith Desouza will start alongside Ishaan on the first row, followed by Karminder Pal Singh and Aditya Pawar on the second row
• Debutant Jeet Jhabakh clinched fifth position on the grid for his first ever competitive race

Coimbatore, June 18, 2016: Competitive driving for the Volkswagen Motorsport India Vento Cup 2016 started off today with the Qualifying session for Race 1 of the weekend. The cool and cloudy conditions in Coimbatore at the Kari Motor Speedway allowed the drivers to push their cars to the limits. Ishaan Dodhiwala stormed to a stunning pole position on his first fast lap itself and clocked a lap time of 1 min 10.087 sec. After having stayed out for less than half of the session, Ishaan returned to the pits confident of the performance he had already put in.

Commenting on the first pole position of the season, Ishaan said, “I had a good feeling right from the pre-season test into the free practice sessions. The car was feeling good and I was confident of the timing I had put in right at the beginning. The conditions were good for driving today and I hope it stays like this for the races tomorrow.” He further added, “My target for tomorrow will be to have a good start and carry the pace that I have had over the last week into the races.”

While Ishaan was at his best, Keith Desouza went on to clinch the second position on the grid with a fastest lap time of 1 min 11.018 sec, 0.931 second behind pole-setter Ishaan. Coming in at a very close third position was last year’s Vento Cup Runner-Up Karminder Pal Singh with a fastest lap time of 1 min 11.288 sec. Former Polo Cup driver Aditya Pawar, who returned to racing this season after a break of couple of years, clocked 1 min 11.608 sec to take the fourth spot.

Jeet Jhabakh, who debuts this weekend with his first ever race tomorrow, put up an impressive lap of 1 min 11.628 sec to clinch the fifth spot on the grid. Talking about his experience in the Volkswagen Motorsport programme, Jeet said, “The Vento Cup race cars are just great to drive. The pre-season test helped me a lot to understand the track, the car and the lines that I should be taking. Driver Coach Rayomand Banajee and fellow drivers played an instrumental role in making me understand the fine bits of getting faster out there. I am looking forward for a good set of races tomorrow.”

Volkswagen Vento Cup 2016’s first race will be held at Kari Motor Speedway near Coimbatore tomorrow at 12:15 pm followed by the second race at 3:40 pm. The live timings during the race can be followed atwww.madrasmotorsports.in/livetiming/live.html

Volkswagen Vento Cup 2016: Qualifying Results

Sr. No.	Car Number	Name	Best Time
1	8	Ishaan Dodhiwala	01:10:087
2	11	Keith Desouza	01:11:018
3	16	Karminder Pal Singh	01:11.288
4	7	Aditya Pawar	01:11.608
5	5	Jeet Jhabakh	01:11.628
6	3	Amit Mete	01:12.031
7	1	Rashad Khan	01:12.206
8	9	Sree Venkata Teja	01:12.207
9	20	Pradeep Rao	01:12.299
10	14	Eswar Bolisetti	01:12.355
11	18	Niranjan Todkari	01:12.700
12	10	Arfath Mohammed	01:12.793
13	12	Gowdham Raj	01:12.965
14	4	Rajeev Srivastava	01:13.050
15	17	Arunshowry Vallabhaneni	01:13.050
16	6	Hatim Shabbir	01:13.077
17	19	Abhishek Vakil	01:15.065

About Volkswagen Motorsport India: Taking ahead 50 years of enriching global motorsport legacy of Volkswagen, Volkswagen Motorsport India commenced operations with the Polo Cup India in 2010. The series started off with a first- ever iconic race being held at Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex at Balewadi in Pune, the hometown of Volkswagen in India. The vast global expertise, coupled with rich dynamic history of the Group has enabled Volkswagen Motorsport India to progress swiftly and become the best one make series in a short span of time. The Volkswagen Polo R Cup enhanced awareness as well as underlined the technological advancement and power of Volkswagen Polo in India. In 2015, Volkswagen Motorsport India shifted to Vento Cup and continued to provide a vital platform for the talented young racers to demonstrate their capabilities nationally and internationally by nurturing them. In the one-make series, all participating cars are technically identical with the same performance making it possible for only the most skilled drivers to leave an impact.

Successes in Indian Rallying: Under the Customer Sport Initiative, Volkswagen Motorsport India started providing teams and individuals running Volkswagen Polo rally cars in the Indian Rally Championship (IRC) with technical assistance and spares from 2013. The Volkswagen Polo ended 2013 and 2014 season by winning the 1600-cc class and grabbing numerous rally wins.