2018 VW Ameo Cup Round 3: Mohite Leads, Ball Claims Maiden Win

The third round of the 2018 season of the Volkswagen Ameo Cup was held at the Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) on 18-19 August. Dhruv Mohite dominated the weekend with a pole position and two wins in three races. Meanwhile, rookie driver Shubhomoy Ball won his first ever race in the championship.

The first race, which was held on Saturday, saw Dhruv start from pole. He had a clean start and starting building a comfortable lead right from first lap. However, as the temperatures began soaring midway through the race, he eased off to keep things tidy and claim victory. There was battle going on behind him for the the final two spots on the podium. Saurav Bandyopadhyay, Jeet Jhabak, Anmol Singh and Pratik Sonawane went wheel to wheel right from the start. However, Saurav pulled away from the rest, followed by Jeet. While Anmol kept dropping places, Pratik gained four spots to keep the pressure on Jeet. However, before he could set up another challenge, he had run out of laps and had to settle for fourth

At the end of Race 1, Sirish Vissa, the head of Volkswagen Motorsport India, said, “Today’s race was a pretty clean one with only a few ups and downs. We had two major crashes with cars getting terribly damaged yesterday. Our team worked hard into the night yesterday to have both cars up on the grid for the race today. The championship is closely contested at the moment and with five more races to go, it’s anyone’s titie at the moment.”

The second race saw guest driver Ameya Dandekar start from pole thanks to the reverse grid. However, he failed to capitalise on his grid position with a slow start. This gave Shubhomoy Ball the advantage while heading into the crucial Turn 1 at MMRT. Although he couldn’t pull away like Dhruv did the previous day, he was never under any pressure and managed to become the first-ever rookie to win a race this season. Meanwhile, Affan Sadat Safwan Islam from Bangladesh finished second while Dhruv, who started from eighth, grabbed the last spot on the podium.

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Behind them was an intense battle between Siddharth Mehdiratta, Jeet, Anmol and Pratik, all of whom made some sort of contact with each other and suffered damages to the car. Jeet and his white-coloured Ameo managed to pass Siddharth and take fourth despite having a broken front bumper. Anmol Singh, who was the only driver to claim three podiums in the last round, settled for sixth, while pole-sitter Dandekar dropped down to a disappointing 11th.

“This is my first win and I just can’t believe it. Driver coaches Rayomand Banajee and Karthik Tharani have helped me learn and come up to pace very quickly. These are the results of those lessons,” said Shubhomoy Ball who now leads the Junior Cup.

“We have seen Shubhomoy maintaining his own diary, session after session, noting down every word that comes out of the technical team as well as the driver coaches. This sort of dedication is what we are always looking for through our programme,” said Sirish after the race.

The final race at MMRT saw Dhruv start from pole once again. He had a clean start and opened up a comfortable lead to the rest behind him. The championship leader was so dominant throughout this weekend that he finished the race 7.757 seconds ahead of the Saurav Bandyopadhyay, making it one of the highest winning margins seen this season so far. Meanwhile, Shubhomoy Ball, the winner of Race 2, grabbed third, while Affan Sadat and Pratik slipped past Anmol to grab fourth and fifth, respectively. Jeet, on the other hand, had a difficult race and finished seventh.

“With three rounds done, we have the rookie drivers up to comparable pace as the top runners. There has been an impressive show across the grid this weekend. There was some aggressive driving and that has only taught the drivers the right lessons. We will go to the Buddh International Circuit for the the last round of the Cup and are really excited to see how the cars perform there as it will be our first competitive weekend at that track,” said Sirish after the end of Round 3.

The 2018 Ameo Cup will now move to the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida for the final round, which comprises of two races. The current lineup of driver’s have never driven the Ameo Cup cars on this race track. Hence, we expect the final round to be quite interesting to watch.