Volkswagen Ameo Class 2019: Jeet Jhabakh Secured Lead With Two Wins

Volkswagen Motorsport India concluded the Race 2 and Race 3 of its Ameo Class 2019 National Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. With the top 8 finishers of Race 1 starting in the reverse grid of Race 2, Viraj Jhala was on pole followed by Avik Anwar on the first row and Aiman Sadat and Siddharth Mehdiratta on row two. 

The second race of a weekend is always action packed with faster drivers starting on reverse grid and charging from the back. Pratik climbed up the order with aggressive driving early on in the race and took lead followed by Avik and Aiman staying close behind him till the end of the race. Despite crossing the finish line ahead of everyone, Pratik was handed over the 10-second penalty that pushed him down from first to the seventh spot, thus handing over the win to Avik who had started from pole position. The highlight of the race remained Junior driver Aiman who clinched his first podium in the overall category in his first race weekend itself. Anmol had a difficult start from the seventh position, but he gradually moved up and bagged the third position.

The grid positions for the third and final race of Round One were based on the second-best lap time achieved by the drivers during Friday’s qualifying session. Jeet took pole position while Pratik joined him on the front row. Saurav Bandyopadhyay and Anmol took the third and the fourth positions respectively on the grid. 

Race 3 started off very clean. Once the lights went off Jeet Jhabakh very carefully and strategically maintained and defended his pole position throughout the race. Anmol jumped up one position by overtaking Pratik in the first lap itself. Thereafter the trio Jeet, Anmol and Pratik held their positions throughout the race. Pratik did feel the heat with Saurav trying to move ahead of him but he managed to hold his position.

On the conclusion of the first race weekend of Ameo Class 2019 National Championship Mr. Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India said, “The Race 2 was quite difficult for few of our competitors because they ran far-off the regulations in terms of exceeding the track limits, but the three winners really did a good job and managed to achieve the first three positions. I am really impressed to see Bangladesh achieve the first two positions and make their country proud. All of the drivers in the last race have set a benchmark in terms of driving standards by putting on one of the cleanest race we all have come across.” He added, “The crowning glory for us is the fact that the best lap for the first 16 drivers out of 18 was within a second.”