VW Polo Cup to race in Sri Lanka

India’s only manufacturer-backed racing series, the Volkswagen Polo-R Cup is all set to make its international debut with a race in Sri Lanka, Autocar India can reveal.  

With the final round of the series having concluded recently in Chennai, this non-championship round will be run as a part of the Colombo night races being held from 16-18 December. As the name suggests, the races will be held under floodlights around a challenging two-kilometer street circuit in downtown Colombo.  

The VW Polo-R Cup will be one of the ten categories which organisers claim include touring cars upto GT3 and GT4 specifications - thus putting Aston Martins, Moslers, Lamborghinis, Porsches,  Imprezas, Evolutions and others in the fray across different classes while the single-seater contingent will be represented by Formula Fords. A few motorcycle races are expected to feature mix as well.  

It is the first time that a motorsport event of this magnitude is being held in Sri Lanka, and the organisers definitely seem to have taken inspiration from the Macau Grand Prix - which has been run on the streets of Macau since 1954. The Macau GP also features several classes of touring cars, motorcycles with the intensely-competitive International F3 race being the flagship event.  

A ten or eleven car grid for the Polo Cup is most likely, with several championship front-runners including Rahil Noorani, Avdumber Hede, Munjal Savla and a few others having already confirmed their participation while championship runner-up Oshan Kothadiya’s decision is awaited. Hence, a total of seven or eight Indian drivers are expected on the grid with the remaining slots to be filled by Sri Lankan drivers. However, champion Vishnu Prasad is unlikely to feature as he has his eye on the bigger prize - the VW Scirocco-R Cup drive in 2012.

Although some documentation with respect  to the transportation of the race cars to Sri Lanka is pending, it is most likely  that everything will be sorted well in time for what seems like an intriguing prospect  for the series which has quickly become the standard in Indian Motorsport during its short two-year existence.