Fresh faces, new car set to debut in Volkswagen Ameo Cup
The Volkswagen Ameo Cup 2017 is all set to kick off at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore this weekend.
Volkswagen Ameo Cup car
Volkswagen Motorsport
Keeping in line with its objective of nurturing young talent, Volkswagen Motorsport India finalised the driver line-up for the 2017 season after a selection process. Ten young drivers were selected for this one-make touring car series. Over 620 entries from across India were received.
Eight drivers from previous seasons of the Vento Cup and Polo Cup will be challenged by the 10 new drivers. There will also be two drivers from Bangladesh - Affan Sadat and Tauhid Anwar.
Karminder Pal Singh received a wild card entry and is expected to be a strong contender with three runner-up positions in VW cups. Last year's junior title winner Jeet Jhabakh, Pradeep Rao and Aditya Pawar are the other strong contenders.
The fixed grid of 20 will, however, feature international guest drivers for single rounds as a part of the exchange programme run by Volkswagen Motorsport globally.
Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India, said: “The number of racing talents that register for the selection process is remarkable and it is becoming increasingly difficult for us to shortlist the amateur racers from this talented lot.
"We have witnessed improvement in the racing knowledge of these young budding racers from the time we started our one make series back in 2009," he added.
The Ameo Cup rounds will be part of the 2017 MMSC FMSCI Indian Racing Championship. In all, four rounds have been scheduled across three tracks -- Kari Motor Speedway (Coimbatore), Madras Motor Race Track (Chennai) and Buddh International Circuit (Greater Noida).
Moving away from the Vento, Volkswagen have introduced a new car this year. The Ameo will come in and has been completely developed at the company's plant in Pune.
The Ameo race car has the same body as the road verison but has the Volkswagen GTI engine. This powerplant is a turbocharged inline 4-cylinder one with a displacement of 1798 cc. It produces 205 PS @ 6100 rpm of power and can generate 320 Nm of torque from 3200-4600 rpm.
The engine has been coupled with a 6-speed sequential gearbox with steering-mounted paddle shifters. The car has got a new engine control unit that is calibrated and mapped to suit the new engine and the gearbox control system.
The car has also got a new suspension setup.
This weekend will also see the first round of the Indian Touring Cars being conducted. This is part of the National Championship.
Driver line-up for 2017 Ameo Cup:
Sr. No. |
Name |
City |
---|---|---|
1 |
Jeet Jhabakh |
Hyderabad |
2 |
Karminder Singh |
Delhi |
3 |
Aditya Pawar |
Mumbai |
4 |
Rashad Khan |
Mumbai |
5 |
Pradeep Rao |
Mumbai |
6 |
A Sandeep Kumar |
Chennai |
7 |
Donovan Vaz |
Goa |
8 |
Sourav bandyopadhyay |
Mumbai |
9 |
Affan Sadat (Bangladesh) |
Chittagong (Bangladesh) |
10 |
Tauhid Anwar (Bangladesh) |
Dhaka (Bangladesh) |
11 |
Vedant Agarwal |
Delhi |
12 |
Dhruv Mohite |
Kolhapur |
13 |
Anmol Singh |
Delhi |
14 |
Siddharth Kotecha |
Jalgaon |
15 |
Pavneet Singh Sheetal |
Indore |
16 |
Naveen Puligilla |
Hyderabad |
17 |
Rohit Goyal |
Chennai |
18 |
Johir Suresh |
Coimbatore |
19 |
Abson Varghese |
Chennai |
20 |
Vishruth Sharma |
Mumbai |
Provisional schedule for Ameo Cup:
Date |
Event |
Venue |
---|---|---|
15 -16 July, 2017 |
Ameo Cup Round 1 |
Coimbatore |
22 -23 July, 2017 |
Ameo Cup Round 2 |
Chennai |
19-20 August, 2017 |
Ameo Cup Round 3 |
Chennai |
07-08 October, 2017 |
Ameo Cup Round 4 |
Greater Noida |
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