After three rounds – first at Kari Speedway, second and third at the MMRT, the Volkswagen Vento Cup has come to the Buddh International Circuit for its fourth and final weekend for 2016. In the first of the two races this weekend, Ishaan Dodhiwala managed to seal a comfortable victory, a good 11 seconds ahead of Delhi boy, Karminder Singh. The podium was completed by Aditya Pawar, who started eighth, but impressively made his way past the competition. He crossed the chequered flag six seconds behind Karminder.
Ishan led the grid right from the qualifier, and maintained a strong lead during the race from start to finish, widening the gap between himself and Karminder, his chief rival, lap after lap.
The line-up behind the top two saw stiff competition between Keith Desouza, Gowdham Murugan, Aditya Pawar and guest driver, Rishaad Mody, who exchanged positions multiple times, fighting for spots three and four. However, Aditya overtook Gowdham between lap 4 and 5 before slipping past Keith. Aditya finally overtook Rishaad at the last corner of the last lap to bag his spot on the podium.
Jeet Jhabakh, 23, who started tenth on the grid, secured the Junior Drivers Vento Cup title and a sponsored place in the 2017 season of Volkswagen’s one-make series.
The tenth and final Vento Cup 2016 race takes place on October 2. Here’s a look at the results for Round 4, Race 1.
Pos. Car Number Name Total Time
1 8 Ishaan Dodhiwala 19:51.066
2 16 Karminder Singh 20:02.198
3 7 Aditya Vijay Pawar 20:08.234
4 21 Rishaad Mody 20:08.881
5 12 Gowdham Murugan 20:10.878
6 11 Keith Desouza 20:11.771
7 15 Affan Sadat Safwan Islam 20:19.605
8 18 Niranjan Todkari 20:20.137
9 10 Arfath Mohammad 20:21.018
10 1 Rashad Khan 20:22.152
11 5 Jeet Jhabakh 20:35.332
12 17 Arunshowry Vallabhaneni 20:35.882
13 22 Simran Rastogi 20:42.200
14 6 Hatim Shabbir 20:42.654
15 9 Sree Venkata Teja 20:45.564
16 3 Amit Mete 21:41.797
17 19 Shreyas Venkatesh 21:54.413
18 20 Pradeep Rao DNC