Volkswagen Motorsport India’s inaugural Virtual Racing Championship (VW-VRC) received over 4500 entries from all around the world. After many training sessions via webinars and qualifying rounds, 28 have made it to the line-up for the season. The winner of the Virtual Racing Championship will get a seat in the 2021 Volkswagen Polo Championship.
The Virtual Racing Championship will be conducted by Volkswagen Motorsport India (VMI) by keeping a track through race controls and ensuring that the races are being organised as per protocols. To make it a fair platform, participants will have access to data from the game to help them analyse and improve their driving skills. Additionally, VMI will take strict action against the participants who show unsportsmanlike behavior, break the rules or disregard the safety protocols during the length of the championship.
VW-VRC will have five rounds with three practice sessions, one qualifying session and two races per round. The grid for the first race will be decided through a qualifying session and the grid for the second race will be the reverse order of the top 12 contenders and the rest will start in whichever position they finished. Each round will also have two additional guest racers. The points system for the VW-VRC will be the same as the real-world Polo Championship.
Commenting on the occasion, Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India said, “We would like to congratulate all the 28 participants and wish them luck for the championship. The VW-VRC is our responsible prospect to touch base with scores of motorsport followers from across the world. Bringing the virtual racing format for the first time in India, we are confident that the championship will receive the same positive response as our track competition.”
Volkswagen has always been keen to keep motorsports alive in India. With the VRC, it aims to recreate track driving experience and provide a platform for all the racing enthusiasts which they can use to kick start their racing career.
Meanwhile, the season has already gotten off to an action packed start with Aaroh Ravindra emerging victorious in the first race ahead of Steve Smuts and Amith Kutti. In the second race of round one, Oshan Kothadiya took the top spot with Amith Kutti and Aaroh Ravindra finishing a close second and third respectively.
Final List of Participants:
Raiden Samervel- Mumbai
Tej Patel- Mumbai
Munjal Savla- Mumbai
Aashish Raj- Mumbai
Jamie Shaw- Mumbai
Aaroh Ravindra- Mumbai
Anuj Raj- Mumbai
Raj Tula- Mumbai
Swaraj Yadav- Navi Mumbai
Raghav Budhiraja- New Delhi
Neraj Natarajan- New Delhi
Amith Kutti- Chennai
Abhinay Bikkani- Bengaluru
Glen Suchitha- Bengaluru
Lalit Jhabakh- Hyderabad
Nirav Jain- Hyderabad
Rohit Raut- Pune
Pratik Sonawane- Pune
Abhimanyu S Menon- Ernakulam
Garvit Lodha- Jodhpur
Sidharth Sathyan- Kozhikode
Navneet Kumar- Ranchi
Divyang Dodia- Navsari / Canada
Steve Smuts- Abu Dhabi / South Africa
Aditya Pawar- Arnhem (Netherlands)
Oshan Kothadiya- Eindhoven (Netherlands)
H M Tauhid Anwar- Dhaka (Bangladesh)
Rishabh Banerjee- Singapore