Avdumber Hede grabs Pole for Race One of the final round of Polo R Cup 2011 at MMSC, Chennai

Avdumber Hede from Goa set the fastest lap in a wet qualifying session today at the final race weekend of the JK-Volkswagen Polo Cup India at the MMSC Race Track, Irungattukottai in Chennai. Main championship contenders Vishnu Prasad and Rahil Noorani will start in 2nd and 4th position respectively with just 5 points separating the two. Oshan Kothadiya from Pune will start third on the grid. Rahil Noorani crashed his car at the end of qualifying and will face a race against time to get his car fixed for tomorrow’s race.

Earlier today it was announced that the race will take place over the short circuit due to the weather conditions. Weather proved to be the biggest challenge today as the session was red-flagged after 8 minutes due to torrential rains. There are five drivers still in with a realistic chance of winning the coveted title and with unpredictable weather forecasted, tomorrow’s race promises to be a thriller.

Speaking on winning the Pole Position, Goa lad Avdumber said, “Today’s conditions were probably the hardest I have ever driven in but am happy that I was able to put the car on pole position. I know I still have an outside chance of winning the championship but my main goal is to win the race tomorrow and see what happens from there. Hopefully I can get a great start and try to control the race from there.”

Second on the grid with just 0.297 seconds away from the leader, Vishnu said, “Qualifying was really tough as the conditions deteriorated during the session. The start will be crucial for me tomorrow so will do the best to have a quick getaway. Hopefully conditions tomorrow will be better and we can have a dry race. My aim since the beginning of the year has been to win the championship and I will tackle the race with this in mind.”

The qualifying grid for Race One:

Position	Car Number	Driver	Total Time
	2	Avdumber Hede	01:18.051
	22	Vishnu Prasad	01:18.348
	14	Oshan Kothaiya	01:18.453
	20	Rahil Noorani	01:19.257
	26	Maiken Rasmussen	01:19.937
	30	Sunny Sidhu	01:19.989
	15	Ajay Kini	01:20.203
	4	Sourav Bandhyopadhyay	01:20.234
	19	Mihir Dharkar	01:20.330
	27	Xie Jiawu	01:20.395
	21	Angad Singh Matharoo	01:20.620
	3	Achintya Mehrotra	01:20.671
	1	Vidit jain	01:21.030
	6	Munjal Savla	01:21.263
	11	Prateek Dalal	01:21.298
	24	Chitesh Mandody	01:21.316
	7	Aditya Pawar	01:21.376
	17	Abhinav Aditya Agarwal	01:21.552
	16	Alisha Abdullah	01:22.213
	23	Fan Huaying	01:22.274
	5	Laurence Taur	01:24.495
	12	Donovan Vaz	-

Thanks to its proven concept of promoting young talent abroad, the Polo Cup enjoys the reputation of being an ideal stepping stone to enter professional racing. Building on its success with the debut Polo Cup India last year, Volkswagen Motorsport will continue to make Polo R Cup the premier touring car championship in the country.

Motor sports enthusiasts interested in getting further information can log on to the website, www.polocup.in. This website displays information about Polo R Cup format, race updates and driver profiles. Follow Polo R Cup on www.facebook.com/vwpolocupIndia.