You don’t have to ask us twice to surrender the proverbial pen and don our racing overalls – we’re happy to do it. If anything, the occasions to do so are too few and far between…
My last attempt at serious racing was in the MRF Formula 1600 series over a year ago. 2015 had come and gone in the blink of an eye, and my overalls had been neatly packed in the storeroom all year long. I feared that they were destined to stay there until the New Year, but in the nick of time I got a call from the good folks at VW Motorsport saying that they would be organising a media race on the last racing weekend of the year at the BIC – and asking if we’d like to participate. Do mice like cheese, do babies like milk, do birds (early or otherwise) like worms – you get the picture!
And so I showed up to race a car that I was all too familiar with. I had raced it on a couple of occasions in the past – and had enjoyed some success as well. VW gave me a guest drive in the Polo Cup car as far back as 2010. I managed to snag a podium position over the weekend against the championship contenders, as they were battling for supremacy in the penultimate race of the season – so I was pretty pleased to say the least. In the last media race, I started 11th and last (because I had to skip qualifying) and finished second. In my last competitive outing, in the MRF single-seater, I managed to make it to the podium once again. So, by now, the pressure was clearly on to perform.
During the first 20-minute practise session, I managed to get in a couple of clean laps despite a red flag that robbed us of precious time. I had home court advantage at the BIC compared to my colleagues, so I managed to set the pace. I missed the second session because I had a pressing engagement that couldn’t be missed, but I was quietly confident that I’d be able to repeat the feat in qualifying the next day. But it wasn’t to be.
You see, during the second practise session some of my colleagues, turned competitors, let the red mist get the better of them. Let’s just say that they wrote off a couple of cars, and leave it at that. VW managed to ready one spare car in time for qualifying the following day, and they chose to hand my car over to one of the victims of misfortune from the previous day – leaving me with something a little more interesting. A special entry in the JK Tyre VW Vento Cup!
I couldn’t have scripted it better myself. Well, I could have actually. You see, I had to go straight into qualifying in a car that I had never driven before against a bunch of young guys who had spent the better part of the year mastering this very car – and their last race had been on this circuit too, I might add. Sailesh Bolisetti – Polo Cup champion from 2010 – was setting the pace against a field of some young and promising talent. I had raced with him in 2010, so I was feeling pretty good about my chances.
The car itself is impeccably prepared. I don’t think there are cars anywhere in the Indian racing scene that are as well turned out as these. Okay, they’re relatively stock – save for shocks, springs, brakes, and a little bit of fettling with the 1.4-litre TSI turbo-petrol engine. Power is transmitted to the front wheels through a 7-speed DSG gearbox that’s controlled via paddles on the steering wheel. The car is actually faster than the slightly lighter Polo TSI Cup car, because it has better aerodynamics and is a little more stable. While the first-gen Cup cars – the diesel – is quite happy to swap ends under braking, the Vento is as stable as they come. And this means that you can brake as late as you possibly dare and plant the throttle with impunity thereafter without fear of losing it. The key is controlling the understeer and getting ahold of the front end. Audi protégé, Aditya Patel, was on hand for pointers thankfully, and he said you really have to load up the front – which is to say, get weight on the front by getting on the brakes – before you can turn into a corner. He likes to be aggressive with the car to get it turned in. Without any practise sessions under my belt, I was struggling to do so.
Quali
Fortunately, I didn’t embarrass myself completely. I managed to qualify in 7th and 6th for the races on Saturday and Sunday respectively, not far behind the other guest driver of the weekend, Advait Deodhar – a well-known name in the Indian motorsport scene. But I was still over a-second-and-half slower than Sailesh, and I wasn’t very happy with that. But there was more speed to be had – I was sure of that. The tyres are at their optimum for a small window in qualifying, and that’s normally in the first couple of laps. Well, in the first few laps I was just getting to grips with the car. With each lap I was getting quicker, until the tyres started going off. I tried a slightly slower lap to see if I could bring them back, but it wasn’t to be.
Race 1
I managed a clean start. Launch control is pretty straightforward, but I still lost a spot or two while getting to grips with it. The start of a race is often the most adrenaline-fuelled part of a race, as all 20 cars lunge towards the first couple of corners hoping the get the better of the other at the very start. In the melee, I managed to claw back a couple of spots by the end of the back straight, and readied myself for a good scrap or two. The race was interrupted by a safety car period, after which Advait and I battled tooth-and-nail for a couple of laps. But, in the end, I got overtaken by one of the championship contenders who had dropped back earlier in the race. The end result was a single position gained – so a sixth for my troubles. Not great, but the next race could be promising.
Race 2
To mix things up, race two had a reverse grid for the top-eight finishers of the first race. So, I would be starting in 3rd place. I was hoping for a shot at the podium then! The race started under the safety car because visibility wasn’t great – the early morning smog in Delhi is quite persistent at this time of the year! Well, not long after the safety car went into the pits it was right back out again because someone had crashed. Well, by now, people were getting pretty impatient. And, to give us the maximum number of racing laps, the safety car dived into the pits at the absolute last moment – which caught everyone a little off guard. The leader was a little slow to get off the blocks (since he had the least warning), so as I lined up to overtake the car in second place I got tapped from the back coming out of the final corner – which shoved me sideways on the grass alongside the main straight, and most of the field streamed by. ‘There goes that podium,’ I thought, as I fought the car and quickly got back on the gas. In the chaos that ensued, I managed to get back a couple of spots. It was bare-knuckle stuff, three wide into the first couple of corners. The safety car made another appearance as the leader got literally shoved off the road and sent front-first into the barriers at speed. He was okay fortunately.
These guys have bumpers, and aren’t afraid to use them – at least during the championship decider that is. Just as I was plotting my recovery, one of the other guest drivers from China decided to dive down the inside going into turn three from what looked like half-a-mile back. It was an optimistic move, but well executed in the end. It slowed me coming onto the back straight, and Advait drove past as a result. We battled it out again, but I ended up seventh, and not very happy with my pace. I just couldn’t get the front end under me.
Race 3
This was my only chance at salvation. The entire field had been warned to keep it clean for the final race of the year. I had a good start and managed to keep pace with the leaders for the first half of the race. Advait and I went at it again hammer-and-tong. I passed him going into turns five and six, and he got me back down the inside of the last corner. It was still early days in the final race, and I wanted to up my pace, so didn’t want to start driving defensively. I felt like I would be able to build the pace towards the end. But it wasn’t to be. I thought I could pressure him and move further up the field, but that’s not how it played out unfortunately. I just couldn’t come to grips with the car and the tyres in racing conditions. Another sixth was the best I could manage.
After qualifying, which was my first session in the car, we made some changes to the set up – by way of altering tyre pressures – and that took some getting used to. So I didn’t want to mess with the car during the second and third races. I figured I could get used to it and extract the most from it as is. But racing a car to the absolute limit isn’t always as straightforward as that. The fight comes down to tenths of a second, and there’s a great deal of fine-tuning required – that’s the beauty of racing in fact.
The true beauty of wheel-to-wheel racing, however, is the fact that it puts you in a higher state of consciousness. It’s an adrenaline-fuelled drug that’s as addictive as they come. Time slows down, nuances are magnified, and everything is visceral and primal. It really is something else.
The JK Tyre VW Vento Cup, meanwhile, is an incredible breeding ground. The drivers at the middle of the pack need to raise their game though. They’ve got an amazing opportunity, and they need to make the most of it. For me, well, I have unfinished business in the Vento Cup. VW Motorsport – anyone listening?
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