Vishnu Prasad, winner of the 1st race of the 2nd round of the Polo Cup India 2010 crossing the finish line
Coimbatore, July 18, 2010 – Vishnu Prasad, the 17 year old driver from Chennai, today won the 1st race in Round 2 of the Volkswagen-JK Tyre Polo Cup India 2010 at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. The racer from Chennai led from start to finish in the 20 lap race as he became only the second winner of the Polo Cup today. He completed the race in 27 minutes and 57.043 seconds covered a total of 42 kilometres. He was followed home closely by Sahil Shelar from Pune and Karthik Shankar from Hyderabad.
Championship leader Sailesh Bolisetti finished in a competitive 4th position after starting in 6th place. Most impressive today was the only woman on the grid, Alisha Abdullah who finished in 6th position after starting in 13th position.
Vishnu had a great start and led comfortably with Sahil Shelar and Kathik Shankar close behind him. Sailesh Bolisetti made a brilliant overtaking move to pass Mohammed Fahad Kutty for 4th position on lap 11. The safety car came out on lap 12 after Suraj Bhagat stopped on track at the second corner due to a collision. It was back to racing when the safety car veered back into the pits with five laps to go. Vishnu had no trouble picking up from where he left off and crossed the chequered flag to win his first race in the Volkswagen-JK Tyre Polo Cup in India 2010.
Mr K K Swamy, Vice-President and Managing Director, Volkswagen India, with Ms Alisha Abdullah, the only woman racer
Mr. K K Swamy Vice-President and Managing Director, Volkswagen India Private. Limited, commented, “Today marked the first time the Race Polos raced on an actual race track. It was thrilling to see a change in the rankings from debut race in Pune, the hometown Volkswagen. It was also fantastic to see the sole woman racer in the series, Ms Alisha Abdullah, finish in the top 6.”
A delighted Vishnu expressed, “I had a great first race today. And I would like to thank Volkswagen for organising the event and the technical expertise from the coaches. Although I had few bad starts, it was a close race right till the end, and I fought hard to keep my 1st position.”
Second placed Sahil said, “This is my first time on the podium and I hope to be back here after the second race this afternoon. I am looking forward to starting in the reverse grid, it should make for a very interesting race.”
Third placed Karthik commented, “It feels good to be back on the podium, for he third time. My focus remains on the championship and I hope to be on the podium as often as I can.”
There were a host of dignitaries present for Round 2 of the Volkswagen-JK Tyre Polo Cup in India. This included Mr. K K Swamy, Vice-President and Managing Director, Volkswagen India Private Limited; Mr. Sashikumar, Chief Executive Officer Ramani Cars Private Limited, Volkswagen Dealer Coimbatore and Mr. Rick Bond, Managing Director, Lear Corporation, Sponsor of Volkswagen-JK Tyre Polo Cup India 2010.
Below are the results and the lap times from first race of Round 2 of the Volkswagen-JK Tyre Polo Cup India 2010.
| Position | Car No | Name | Total time | Best Lap time |
| 6 | Vishnu Prasad | 00:27:57.043 | 1:16:554 | |
| 18 | Sahil Shelar | 00:27:58.893 | 1:16:774 | |
| 19 | Karthik Shankar | 00:27:59.608 | 1:17:008 | |
| 12 | Sailesh Bolisetti | 00:28:01.701 | 1:16:734 | |
| 21 | Parth Ghorpade | 00:28:01.827 | 1:16:658 | |
| 3 | Alisha Abdullah | 00:28:09.658 | 1:17:772 | |
| 5 | Mohd Fahad Kutty | 00:28:13.889 | 1:16:831 | |
| 7 | Imran Majid | 00:28:14.363 | 1:18:756 | |
| 2 | Gokul Krishna | 00:28:14.736 | 1:18:756 | |
| 4 | Munjal Savla | 00:28:16.491 | 1:17:480 | |
| 10 | Anthony George | 00:28:21.321 | 1:17:794 | |
| 14 | Oshan Kothadiya | 00:28:21.595 | 1:18:294 | |
| 11 | Jai Prashant Venkat | 00:28:22.902 | 1:18:884 | |
| 1 | Vikash Anand | 00:28:24.031 | 1:18:617 | |
| 9 | Samyak Shah | 00:28:26.695 | 1:19:116 | |
| 17 | Sourav Bandopadhyay | 00:28:28.685 | 1:18:854 | |
| 20 | Ameya Bafna | 00:26:59.476 (19 laps) | 1:17:518 | |
| 22 | Betran Dsouza | 00:27:48.798 (18 laps) | 1:18:292 | |
| 8 | Gurniaz Mann | 00:26:40.514 (16 laps) | 1:18:431 | |
| 15 | Suraj Bhagat | 00:12:14.680 (9 laps) | 1:18:263 | |
| 16 | Saran Vikram | - | - |
Motor sports enthusiasts interested in getting further information can log on to the website, www.polocup.in. This website will display information about the format of The Polo Cup India, race updates and driver profiles.
