Volkswagen Virtual Racing Championship line-up announced

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