2017 VW Ameo Cup Concludes With Dramatic Rain-Soaked Finale

The final round of the 2017 Volkswagen Ameo Cup was held at the Madras Motor Race Track from September 15 to 17. The drama was at an all time high as for the first time, the race had the rain God's blessings. Karminder came into the final round having dominated the previous three. His championship title was almost guaranteed as with 384 points, he had a lead of 104 points on the table. But, the other two positions were locked in a close four-way battle between Dhruv Mohite (280), Saurav Bandyopadhyay (260), Sandeep Kumar (230) and Jeet Jhabakh (222).

The drama started right from the qualifying round with Karminder suffering a mechanical problem in the car, and having to settle for the 8th position on the starting grid. Saurav Bandyopadhyay took pole, while A Sandeep Kumar started from the third spot. Splitting them was this round's guest rider - Anning Sun from Shanghai (China).

Race 1

In the first few moments of the race itself, the safety car had to be called on as two drivers -  Aditya Pawar and Jeet Jhabakh - spun off the track. After about three laps, the race was resumed and the first three positions were intact. Karminder, though, had moved up two places and wasn’t settling. With the race heading towards the final laps, Anning Sun had chased down the leader, while Karminder, who was running 5th after Dhruv Mohite retired to the pits, started to strategically lose positions.

After having dominated the weekend with the fastest lap in free practice 1, free practice 2, qualifying and the race, Saurav took a well fought chequered flag in race 1. The guest driver Anning Sun finished a close second and A Sandeep Kumar took a comfortable third. Karminder, still leading on the points table, finished 7th. As the next race was going to have a reverse grid start, Karminder would start second.

Race 2

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After heavy rains on Saturday night, the mood on Sunday morning was tense. Luckily, there was very little drizzle since morning. To add to the drama, the Ameo Cup Race 2 was bumped up in the schedule to be the first race of the day. For the first time ever in the season, the cars were equipped with wet tyres with uniform pressure for all drivers and the grid was set. These tyres were brand new for all drivers and no one could anticipate the results.

The grid saw Siddharth Kotecha, Karminder Singh and Affan Sadat on the first row, taking the wet track head on. A win here for Karminder would see him seal the championship.

As soon as the race began, Karminder took off and was leading from turn one itself. As the race progressed, Karminder showed his class and took an over 12-second lead. Anning Sun dropped to the back of the grid in the start itself. Halfway through the race, it started to pour again, further reducing the pace. Karminder, with a massive lead at the front, started to tread with caution in order to not make any silly mistakes.

At the end, Affan had to battle hard with Sandeep Kumar to get his first podium finish in the second place. Dhruv Mohite, who DNF in the first race, drove splendidly, cutting through the pack to finish at the fourth spot. Saurav Bandyopadhyay could only manage a 7th spot finish.

With this victory, Karminder Singh clinched the title, but the remaining two spots in the championship were up for grabs with only one more race to go.

Race 3

The race of the season had everyone on their toes. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife as the second and third spots of the championship were up for grabs. Anning Sun now was on pole position and meant business. The race started with Sun moving away from the pack but soon, Karminder’s aggressive driving saw him climb up in the standings. In the course though, he clipped Donovan Vaz' car, who was running in second place in the fifth lap. This, however, forced him out of the race.

Anning Sunn showed the young drivers his class as he started to move away from the pool. Finally, he finished with an over 5-second lead in front of Karminder, whose hard fought action saw him on the podium for the final race. The third place was clinched by Dhruv Mohite.

The championship concluded with Karminder on top. Sandeep Kumar took the second spot, while Dhruv Mohite had to settle for the third position. Anmol Singh emerged as the Junior Cup winner of the Ameo Cup 2017 season.

After claiming the Ameo Cup 2017 title, Karminder said, “I have been chasing the title for four seasons but this time I had to put a lot of effort to gain the top spot. The wet tyres were spot on and it took time to work them but they helped me put good lap times.” He further added, “I now move to the open-wheel racing for the next season where my goal would be to take one race at a time and try to learn as much as I can during the initial rounds.”

Ameo Cup will be back next year with more action and a lot more drama. If you want to know how it feels to drive this 205PS turbocharged race Ameo, check out our experience with the beast at the race track.

• The Art Of Racing: Part One
• The Art Of Racing: Part Two