Hede wins action-packed opening race of VW Polo R Cup 2012

The new season of the JK Tyre Volkswagen Polo R Cup could not have had a better start. The race at KMS, Coimbatore had a close finish with less than a second separating winner Avdumber Hede from runner-up Mihir Dharkar. Debutant A. Sandeep Kumar completed the podium.

The race was not without incident. The red flag was waved at the 9th lap after a collision between Siddharth Sharma and Tabish Khan brought out the safety car. Hede, who had started in pole position, looked comfortable in the lead until then. But at the restart, Dharkar began strongly and overtook Hede in the first corner. He kept the lead for the remaining laps and crossed the finish line in first place.

However, the rules state that when a race is split due to the red flag, the driver with the best aggregate time (first and second part of the race combined) is declared winner. This meant Hede won the race despite crossing the finish line second. His time of 14:30.038 was marginally better than Dharkar’s 14:30.744. Sandeep Kumar clocked in at 14:33.244 to take third place, capping an impressive debut.

BHP-ian Jalsa777 (Munjal Savla) finished fourth despite starting 10th on the grid. He was followed by Prashant Tharani Singh, Mexican driver Deigo Duez and Alisha Abdullah. Ajay Kini finished in 8th position and will start from pole position in the next race as per the reverse grid rule. 

After the race, winner Hede admitted that Dharkar was quicker off the tracks than him and revealed that he was unaware of his victory when he crossed the finish line. Meanwhile runner-up Dharkar was under the impression that he had won the race, but admitted to being glad with the result nevertheless. Sandeep Kumar seemed elated at making it to the podium in his debut race. 

The result from Round One Polo R Cup 2012:

Comp 9: 30 seconds penalty for overtaking under yellow flag

Did Not Finish (DNF):

The Polo R Cup 2012 is scheduled to have six race weekends like last year. The race calendar is as listed below.

•    Round 2             July 27-29, 2012                   Coimbatore      KMS
•    Round 3             Aug 24-25, 2012                   Chennai           MMRT
•    Round 4             Sep 15-16, 2012                   Chennai            MMRT
•    Round 5             Nov 30-Dec 02, 2012            Noida               JPSI
•    Round 6             Dec 14-16, 2012                   Chennai            MMRT