Walavalkar, Dharkar dominate Round 3 of VW Polo R Cup 2012

Published August 29, 2012
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Ameya Walavalkar and Mihir Dharkar win Races 1 and 2 respectively in Round 3 of the Volkswagen Polo R Cup 2012

Ameya Walavalkar took pole for Race 1 of Round 3

The excitement continued to grow in the 3rd round of the Volkswagen Polo R Cup 2012 at the MMRT track in Chennai. Ameya Walavalkar clocked a brilliant 2:01.037 lap to secure pole position in qualifying on Saturday. Sandeep Kumar was a close second while winner of the 2010 Polo Cup season and guest driver for the round Sailesh Bolisetti took third place.

Sailesh Bolisetti participated as a guest driver in Round 3

Ameya continued his brilliant form on race day to take the chequered flag in first place in Race 1. He had a quick start and led into the first corner ahead of Sandeep and Avdumber Hede. But Yatin Magu and Alisha Abdullah collided on C2 due to which the race was red flagged. At the restart, Ameya led away from guest driver Sailesh and Sandeep. The Mumbai managed to open up a lead to finish in top spot. Avdumber and Ajay Kini finished in fourth and fifth places respectively. Donovan Vaz maintained good pace throughout the 10-lap race and jumped five places from his qualifying position to finish seventh.

Ajay Kini won Race 2 but was penalised after the race

Saurav Bandyopadhay started on pole with the grid reversed for Race 2, while Donovan Vaz, Mihir Dharkar and Ajay Kini secured the first two rows on the grid. Saurav started well but spun out on the first lap to hand the lead to Donovan. The Goan led all through the 10-lap race with Mihir and Ajay close on his tail. But tyre wear caused Donovan to lose the lead to Ajay. The last three laps witnessed a three-way battle between Ajay, Mihir and Ameya for the top spot. On the last corner of the final lap Ajay cut across the track to finish first, but was later penalised for a collision with Donovan which dropped him down to 12th. Mihir inherited the victory while Ameya and Sailesh took the remaining podium places.

Provisional Championship standings after Round 3 of Volkswagen Polo R Cup India 2012:

Ajay Kini was penalised in race 2 for a collision with Donovan Vaz

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After Round 3, Ameya leads the championship with 184 points, 15 points ahead of second placed Mihir. Sandeep Kumar is a close third with 161 points. Round 4 of the VW Polo R Cup 2012 will be held at MMRT, Chennai on September 15-16.

Pos	Name	Round 1-Race 1	Round 1-Race 2	Round 2-Race 1	Round 2-Race 2	Round 3-Race 1	Round 3-Race 2	Total
1	Ameya Walavalkar	10	16	30	20	60	48	184
2	Mihir Dharkar	24	17	20	16	32	60	169
3	A Sandeep Kumar	20	12	17	24	48	40	161
4	Avdumber Hede	30	13	16	12	40	32	143
5	Donovan Vaz	11	11	14	30	30	30	126
6	Rahil Noorani	12	14	24	17	26	26	119
7	Ajay Kini	14	20	DNF	13	34	22	113
8	Munjal Savla	17	15	7	10	24	34	107
9	Saurav Bandyopadhay	13	10	11	15	28	10	87
10	Anthony George	6	9	6	11	22	24	78
11	Prashanth Tharani Singh	16	24	DNF	14	0	20	74
12	Angad Singh Matharoo	DNF	DNS	15	7	18	28	68
13	Hanoosh Surapaneni	8	8	13	6	16	14	65
14	Alisha Abdullah	15	30	DNF	DNF	0	18	63
15	Mahinder Khidia	9	7	10	9	12	16	63
16	Niranjan Todkari	7	5	9	8	20	8	57
17	Siddharth Sharma	DNF	4	8	4	14	12	42
18	Yatin Magu	5	6	12	5	0	0	28
19	Tabish Khan	DNF	DNF	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
20	Diego Duez	G	G	G	G	G	G	G