2018 VW Ameo Cup: Round 2 Race 2 and Race 3 Report

Race 2 of the second round of the 2018 Ameo Cup was held on a hot and sunny Sunday (July 22). The second race of the weekend had two major complications at the start. The first incident involved pole-sitter Siddharth Mehdiratta, who flashed his lights after the formation lap to confirm if he had lined up correctly for the start. However, the stewards mistook this for an issue with the car and wheeled him out into the pits, delaying the start and reducing the total number of laps from ten to seven. The driver from Lucknow was then forced to start from the pit lane as he had caused the delay. 

Recommended Read: 2018 VW Ameo Cup Round 2 Race 1 Report

This set the stage for Jeet Jabakh, who scored a podium finish in the opening race, to take the lead. On Lap 2, Jeet made a move on race leader Tuhid Anwar to claim P1. Meanwhile, Saurav Bandyopadhyay, who claimed victory in Race 1 at the MMRT the previous day, started from P7 and closed in on Jeet to ended up right behind his tail at the end of Lap 2. As Saurav pushed hard to pile on the pressure on Jeet, his brakes locked up, forcing him to be extra cautious throughout the rest of the race. He had to fend off both Tuhid and Anmol Singh in order to finish second. The battle behind helped Jeet extend his lead by a margin of 2.556 seconds.

Meanwhile, Anmol, who scored his first ever podium the previous day, gave it all he could to pass Saurav, who was struggling with flat spots on his front tyres, to take the second step on the podium.

Car No.7 driven by Pratik Pandurang claimed fourth, while Shubhomoy Ball, Akshay Bhivshetti and Tuhid Anwar settled for fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively. Shivani Pruthvi, the driver from Davangere who put on a stellar performance the previous day, took the 10th spot.

Title favourite Dhruv Mohite, meanwhile, had to retire as he faced an issue with his ABS unit and front dampers. The driver who scored a podium finish the previous day was forced to pit to make changes to his car’s setup. By the time he headed out of the pit lane, he was already a lap down and was eventually forced to retire. The championship was suddenly up for grabs. With just a few hours to sort out any issues before the final race of the weekend, the crew from Volkswagen went about fixing Dhruv’s car.

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The final race of the weekend saw him starting second behind pole-sitter Saurav. As soon as the lights went off, Dhruv passed the winner of Race 1 at MMRT to take the lead as he had a fresher set of tyres after retiring from Race 2. During the eight lap race, the Pune-based driver managed to claw out a gap of over a second, until the safety car was deployed at the end of Lap 2 after two cars veered off the track.

As the stewards restarted the race, Dhruv pulled away from the field as soon as he could. Jeet tried hard to catch up but in vain as Dhruv won the race by a margin of 3.876 seconds. Meanwhile, Anmol Singh became the only driver to score three podium finishes during the weekend by coming in at third. Saurav came fourth, while Pratik, Shobomoy and Siddharth finishes fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.

The last race of the weekend marked the halfway point of this season. At the end of Race 3 at the MMRT, Dhruv had lost the points advantage he had racked up in the first round at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. This year’s grid seems to be so competitive that there are at least three drivers who can secure the championship - Dhruv, Jeet and Saurav.