Karthik Shankar wins 2nd race in Round 2 of Volkswagen-JK Tyre Polo Cup India 2010 at Coimbatore

Karthik Shankar, the 24-year old commercial pilot from Hyderabad, won the 2nd race in Round 2 of the Volkswagen-JK Tyre Polo Cup India 2010 at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. Mohammed Fahad Kutty had finished the race in 1st position. However, he received a 30 second penalty for overtaking during the formation lap that resulted in him moving to 13th position. In the end it was a nail-biting finish as Vishnu Prasad finished on Karthik Shankar’s tail after the duo battled for the last 5 laps.

The 2nd race started as a reverse grid based on the results of the 1st race. Despite this, Karthik Shankar who started from 6th position on the grid to went on to win the race. He completed the race in 26:00.310. He was followed closely by Vishnu Prasad, the winner from the 1st race of Round 2 and by Parth Ghorpade from Kolhapur.

Karthik Shankar pulled-off some brilliant overtaking manoeuvres to get past Imran Majid and Alisha Abdullah. 17-year old Vishnu Prasad practically tail-gated Karthik Shankar in the last 5 laps of the race and proved to be a formidable challenger for the top position in the race. The reverse grid also proved to be a boon for Parth Ghorpade who started in 4th position and ended the race in 3rd position to round off the top 3 podium honours.

Sailesh Bolisetti, who started 5th on grid and was quickly, working his way up the grid had a disappointing finish to his race as he spun out on the 6th lap after a close battle with Imran Majid.

A delighted Karthik expressed, “I had a clean start, but struggled with some under steer in the beginning of the race which cost me some time. Vishnu gave me a tough fight right to the end of the race but I was optimistic about my chances after the first race, I guess Lady Luck worked in my favor. Big thank you to the Volkswagen team for making this happen.”

Second placed Vishnu said, “It was a tough race right from the start. I always knew I had a good car but had to make sure that I was always pushing. I was able to gain two positions in C1, catching up with Karthik. Although it is unfortunate I wasn’t able to pass Karthik, I had a great time racing today.”

Third placed Parth commented, “Although I had a bad start and lost a few positions in the beginning, I managed to fend off the pack to find a place on the podium. This is a good ending to a tough weekend for me. Now I will look forward to the next race.”

There were a host of dignitaries present for Round 2 of the Volkswagen-JK Tyre Polo Cup in India. This included Mr. K K Swamy, Vice-President and Managing Director, Volkswagen India Private Limited; Mr. Sashikumar, Chief Executive Officer Ramani Cars Private Limited, Volkswagen Dealer Coimbatore and Mr. Rick Bond, Managing Director, Lear Corporation, Sponsor of Volkswagen-JK Tyre Polo Cup India 2010.

Below are the results and the lap times from second race of Round 2 of the Volkswagen-JK Tyre Polo Cup India 2010.