Indian racer Sailesh Bolisetti will be racing for Lotus Sport UK in the 2012 Avon Tyres British GT Championship, driving the Lotus Evora in the GT4 category.
Sailesh, who won the inaugural Indian VW Polo Cup title in 2010 and drove the Scirocco-R Cup in 2011, thinks that the hard-contested British GT championship will be the right step up in terms of competition, equipment and team involvement.
“This will be a completely different experience when driving to one-make series – the car’s obviously quicker than whatever I’ve driven before and handling is in a different league, given the mid-engined layout.”
“But it is more than the car alone – this is a factory team with a test-track, which is also used for F1 testing. Hence all their efforts and resources will be focused on making our car/driver combination as competitive as possible. It is a great commitment since brand Lotus will compete in the same grid as Ferraris, Porsches and Aston Martins, leaving no room for complacency.”
“It is definitely a privilege to get an opportunity to represent a marque with such a rich pedigree across a uniquely wide range of racing disciplines – some of the best drivers in the business have been associated with Lotus, so I am extremely motivated and can’t wait for the season to kick off.”
Even though Sailesh has already sampled the 355bhp Evora GT4 race car at the factory test track in Norfolk, he will get some more seat time under his belt in the next two months before the British GT season kicks off at Oulton Park on April 7. The official pre-season tests will focus on more specific set-up work, with qualifying and race distance simulations on the menu as well.
Lotus Sport UK team manager, Gary Ayles, has had a tryst with India, being involved with the A1GP India team and having raced Formula 3 at the Chennai Circuit in the 1990s. “Sailesh is a strong talent that hadn’t been discovered in Europe, until now. I first got to know him and his father through my contacts in India and we kept in touch. Now he has come of age and is ready to race here in Europe with our team – you need to keep an eye on this lad, he has immense potential”, he quipped.
British GT season calendar
- Oulton Park April 7th
- Nurburgring May 17th
- Rockingham June 9th
- Brands Hatch June 23rd
- Snetterton August 4th
- Silverstone September 9th
- Donington Park September 29th
Unnatee Gidithuri
Dipan Sur
