A successful INRC season for Volkswagen Motorsport India

Volkswagen Motorsport India at INRC 2018 season

Volkswagen Motorsport India has changed the face of Indian Motorsport by providing rally drivers with a completely ready to race package by building competition spec Polo and Polo R2 rally cars. They have been supporting privateers with technical know-how and spares during various rounds of the rally championship as a part of Customer Sport Programme. The 2018 INRC season was an exciting one for the Volkswagen Polo and Polo R2, which together secured 37 podium positions and 10 victories altogether in Overall, INRC 1, INRC 2 and INRC 3 categories.

Teams like Arka Motorsports, Snap Racing and Team Champions who were piloting the Polo were in a neck and neck brawl for the INRC 2 title. Piloting the Volkswagen Polo, Karna Kadur of Arka Motorsports kept the overall championship gripping till the last round as he competed for the top honours. By the end of the season, Karna secured three wins and five podiums in INRC 2 category for his team, thus taking the INRC 2 title as well. INRC 3 witnessed Volkswagen Polo taking 14 out of 15 possible podium finishes.

Volkswagen Motorsport India also participated with a factory prepped Polo R2 at three of the five rounds during the season. Vicky Chandhok and co-driver Chandramouli entered the Chennai round, Akbar Ebrahim and co-driver Kumar Ramaswamy drove at the Coimbatore round while evo India Editor, Sirish Chandran along with co-driver Aniruddha Rangnekar piloted the Polo R2 at the Kochi round. While Vicky Chandhok and Akbar Ebrahim fetched the Polo R2 third place in their respective entries, Sirish Chandran surprised everyone with a second spot in the INRC 1 category in Kochi. Three entries and three podium finishes were a real surprise as all three drivers were rallying after a long break from competitive driving.

Volkswagen Polo R2:

Volkswagen India Motorsport team is building rally-spec cars that can be bought by customers and teams competing in different categories of rally championships. Through this programme, the Motorsport team aims at providing top-spec cars that have the potential to win. As a part of this programme, the team has built a rally-spec Polo R2 and put to test in the INRC during three rounds of 2018 season and bagging a podium finish each time.

“2018 has been a brilliant year for us. I am extremely happy to see the Polo being successful across categories, especially bagging the INRC 2 and INRC 3 titles. There was a lot of learning for the teams and the drivers through the year, including for us at the factory. Our Polo R2 ran superbly and grabbed podium in each of its entry and that speaks volumes of its potential.” He further added, “We are now all set to build rally cars for our customers across INRC 1, INRC 2 and INRC 3 category and deliver them before the start of the season.” Said Mr. Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India