PoloDriver

The 2010 Sasol South African Rally Championship resumed after a six-week break in the same thrilling fashion experienced at the end of May. Staged in Port Elizabeth on 23-24 July, the Volkswagen Rally 2010 is the fifth round of the eight event championship, and saw Castrol Team Toyota’s Johnny Gemmell take the fight to VW on their home turf to win the event by just 1.5 seconds from Enzo Kuun. The second BP VW Racing Polo S2000 driven by Jan Habig finished behind Kuun in third.

Gemmell and navigator Drew Sturrock took just three special stages on day one of the event to assert their authority on the rally. The first stage was won by Conrad Rautenbach by a 12-second margin over Gemmell with the second quickest time. A win for Gemmell on the second stage saw the gap close to just 1.2 seconds with that deficit converted to a lead of 13 seconds over Habig by the end of the third stage. By the end of the first day Kuun had taken over from Habig as Gemmell’s main challenger, but was 5.3 seconds off the lead.

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Following the historical inaugural round of the Volkswagen Polo Cup India 2010 on 29–30 May on a street circuit in Pune, Vishnu Prasad and Karthik Shankar were the most successful drivers at the second race weekend of the new championship at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore on 17–18 July. In the first race, 17 year-old Prasad clinched a commanding start-finish victory after starting from pole position. Sahil Shelar took second place in the 20-lap race in front of Shankar.

Great start
Vishnu had a great start and led comfortably with Sahil Shelar and Karthik Shankar close behind him. Sailesh Bolisetti made a brilliant overtaking move to pass Mohammed Fahad Kutty for 4th position on lap 11. The safety car came out on lap 12 after Suraj Bhagat stopped on track at the second corner due to a collision. It was back to racing when the safety car veered back into the pits with five laps to go. Vishnu had no trouble picking up from where he left off and crossed the chequered flag to win his first race in the Volkswagen Polo Cup India 2010.

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The Rally of South Africa took its toll on the field of racers over the weekend of 29-30 May. Only 23 finishers crossed the line at Ermelo, with the BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 of Jan Habig and Ralph Pitchford in a hard fought second place, just 0.7 seconds behind the leaders Johnny Gemmell and Drew Sturrock and their Toyota Auris. A fantastic result considering that, at the end of the first day, the VW pair were over 1 minute and 48 seconds off the leaders and 79 seconds adrift of the eventual rally winners.

The second day proved more profitable, with the gap to the front of the pack narrowed to 46.8 seconds by the end of stage one. After six stages it was down to 38.0, and by stage eight had dropped further to 25 seconds. A further fall to 14.3 seconds had happened by the end of stage nine, while at the end of stage 10 it was up to 19.2 seconds, setting the scene for a nailbiting finish. No-one was quite sure who had actually claimed the rally victory until the cars pulled up at the podium. Analysing the list of fastest stage times, Habig and Pitchford claimed three stage wins.

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Volkswagen Polo Cup South Africa title defender Mathew Hodges was the big winner of the second race weekend of the 2010 championship. Hodges was victorious on the 4.246-kilometre circuit at Kyalami, near Johannesburg in both rounds. Devin Robertson crossed the finish line as the runner-up of the first round, while Miguel Pasqualli came in third. Pasqualli was also on the podium for the second round, coming in behind Hodges. Bryan Morgan made up the top three, finishing race two in third place. The 2010 Volkswagen Polo Cup South Africa series is similar to the other racing Polo championships run in Europe and India. Just as in those series, the one-make format highlights new young driving talent. As many as 30 drivers regularly take to the track in technically identical cars, full grids ensure close-fought races.

A 22-year-old engineering graduate from Visakhapatnam took the spoils this weekend at the inaugural rounds of the Volkswagen Polo Cup India 2010. Races one and two of the new championship were held at the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex near Pune, and saw Sailesh Bolisetti drive to victory in his 129bhp TDI Polo Cup racer, beating his 19 other compatriots. The Volkswagen India Motorsport and JK Tyres championship saw a massive crowd turnout, for what is arguably India’s most-awaited motorsport series of the year.

The street track at Pune was kind to Bolisetti and he led race one from the start, ahead of Saran Vikram. Third place was awarded to Mohammed Fahad Kutty, although his result wasn’t without controversy. Overtaking under a yellow flag gained Kutty a 15-second penalty and saw him lose his podium place, Kartik Shankar taking third spot after Kutty’s points and time were readjusted. The 15-lap race was entertaining too; a tyre wall scrape for Kutty and Alisha Abdullah’s first corner spin delighted the ecstatic crowd.

Race two was a rerun for Bolisetti. Leading from the off, he finished in front of second-placed Shankar, while Kutty drove a cleaner race to step on the podium, crossing the line in third place. The next round of the championship will be held at the Kari Motor Speedway, Coimbatore over the weekend of July 17 and 18. The Volkswagen Polo Cup India 2010 is run by Volkswagen India Motorsport in conjunction with JK Tyres. All 20 young competitors drive identical and centrally-prepared 129bhp TDI Polo Cup racing cars.

[Source: Overdrive]