VW Ameo Cup 2018 Round 1: Action, Drama And Back To Back Wins

Volkswagen Motorsports India has brought back the Ameo Cup for 2018. The first two races which mark Round 1 of the event were held at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. On the grid were 18 drivers with a few familiar names like Dhruv and Saurav. Karminder Singh, last year’s winner of the Ameo Cup, has moved to the Formula 1600 series this year.

Race 1 was a clean affair with Dhruv, Jeet and Saurav starting from the top three places respectively after qualifying. Jeet had a brilliant start and quickly took the lead. But Dhruv maintained constant pressure to finally force Jeet into making an error and took back the first place. While Jeet constantly tried to get close to Dhruv, the race winner’s consistent driving saw him take the victory. Another interesting battle was the one for third place. Pratik was right on Saurav’s tail for the last few laps but his excellent defensive driving got him on the podium.

While this was happening at the top, Arefeen Raafi Ahmed in car number 18 suffered a front left puncture, but kept going for the last 4 laps and took the 11 spot.

Race two was far more dramatic. The top 8 qualifiers of the weekend were starting from the reverse grid, which meant Dhruv and Jeet had to make up 7 and 6 spots respectively to get to the top. After another flying start from Jeet, he got caught up in traffic at turn 1 and ran out of the track, rejoining at the end of the pack. Then in lap 6, Manoj Yanamdala had a major accident in which his car was caught in the tyre barricades and toppled. This caused a red flag and the race went to a restart. At this time, Dhruv was at the front of the grid with Saurav at the 4th place. Dhruv had a good start but soon another safety car after the restart meant his lead again got cut short again, and Saurav got right on Affan’s tail. The race ended with a photo finish between Affan and Saurav with Dhruv taking a comfortable victory. Jeet could only finish 12th in the race.

On the conclusion of Round 1, Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India, said, "We have had a truly exciting race today with a lot of jostling amongst the drivers. The technical team have performed brilliantly over the course of the weekend. While the MRF tyres have performed reliably despite changing weather conditions over the last three days."

Vissa further added, “I would like to congratulate winners from Race 1 and Race 2 and also wish them all the very best for the next 3 rounds. For the next round of races we move to MMRT and it will be exciting to see how these drivers perform in Round 2.”

The second and third rounds of Volkswagen Ameo Cup 2018 will be held at the Madras Motor Race Track in July and August respectively, followed by the fourth round at Buddh International Circuit, Greater Noida, in October.