Volkswagen Vento Cup Round 1 Race Report

The new season's first round of the 2016 Volkswagen Vento Cup was held at Kari Motor Speedway, Coimbatore where it was a little too sunny for comfort at the start. The grid saw a good line-up of old and new drivers who were raring to go. Ishaan Dodhiwala put in a great shift in the qualifying round and started from the pole position for the first race of the weekend after lapping the Kari Circuit in 1 Minute and 10 seconds. Newcomer Keith Desouza along with Karminder Pal Singh started at P2 and P3 respectively. Ishaan managed to stay on pole position throughout the 12 laps and took the chequered flag with a time of 15 minutes and 4 seconds. The real fight was on for the 2nd and 3rd place, where Karminder Pal Singh overtook first timer Keith Desouza and fought off pressure from him and finished in the second place just 2.6 seconds behind Ishaan. Aditya Pawar and Jeet Jhabakh finished the race in 4th and 5th position.

(Karminder Pal Singh finished 1st in the second race, with Ishaan Dodhiwala coming second and Aditya Pawar coming third)

As usual, in the second race of the weekend, the grid was to start in reverse order, which meant, the top three winners in the first race would start in the 8th, 7th and 6th position respectively. The starting conditions weren't as straightforward as the heavens opened up on the racetrack making it difficult for drivers to choose between slick tyres and wet tyres. The cars lined up at the pits shod with slicks but a drizzle later, all of them scrambled back to the pits for a quick tyre change and started the race on wet tyres. In the first lap itself, Karminder Pal Singh showed his class and overtook 3 cars to be in the third position after starting from 7th. Ishaan Dodhiwala too wasn't far behind and his slick manouevring saw him overtake 3 cars to squeeze himself in the 5th spot. By the time the second lap ended, Karminder was upfront, racing ahead of everyone else and Ishaan was following close behind in the second position. The duo ended the race that way and at the end of the first weekend of the 2016 season of the Vento Cup, it was a win apiece for Ishaan Dodhiwala and Karminder Pal Singh. Three more rounds remain, which means a total of six more races in which the champion will be decided.