Volkswagen kick starts new Vento Cup racing series in India

Taking its one-make racing series a notch above, Volkswagen Motorsport India introduces the Vento Cup 2015 in India. This touring car race series will be a part of the 18th JK Tyre Racing Championship, and aims at providing young racing talents a platform to showcase and hone their skills.

Since 2010, the one-make series was competed on race prepped Polo hatchback, but after 5 years of Polo R Cup Volkswagen Motorsport India has refreshed its strategy and introduced the made-for-India Vento sedan as the official car for the Vento Cup series. With the introduction of the new Vento Cup, the popular Polo R Cup has been discontinued from this year onwards.

Similar to the Polo R Cup, the Vento Cup 2015 will serve as a one-make series with equally prepared cars being given to selected racing drivers for the entire season. The idea behind this is to showcase the drivers’ skills where they would have to defeat the others in equally paced machines. In all, 24 race drivers will compete against each other over the championship season for the top honours.

Aspiring race drivers can now register online and the selection will take place through two programs of karting scheduled to be conducted in Pune. Once the drivers are selected, they will be trained further to compete in races that will be conducted as a part of the 18th JK Tyre Racing Championship.

 The Vento Cup race cars that will be prepared by Volkswagen Motorsport India for the drivers will be based on the Volkswagen Vento production cars. These cars will have higher performance derived from a 1.4-litre TSI engine mated with a six-speed DSG gearbox producing maximum power of 180PS and maximum torque of 250Nm. The cars will be equipped with all the safety features as prescribed by FIA such as roll-cage, racing seat, six-point harness, fire extinguisher etc.

Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India, said, “The Polo R Cup was an extremely successful series for us. Through the series, we have nurtured over 65 drivers till now and given sponsored opportunities to 11 drivers to far.” He further added, “With the Vento Cup, we are moving to a car which will have improved dynamics allowing the drivers to have a wider learning scope. The different body style will also add to different setup of the car and will vary its speeds as compared to its predecessor.”

The selected drivers will be segregated into three classes - Junior, Pro and Masters, depending on their driving skills. A seat in the Junior and Pro series will cost Rs 8 lakh and Rs 12 lakh for the Masters series. There will also be a limited number of seats for international competitors at Rs 14 lakh for the entire season, in order to mix the competition levels and bring in expertise from other countries.