Loeb wins at Argentina

Having won equal number of rallies from five rounds in the current season, the battle between Sebastien Loeb and Sabastien Ogier was something to watch out for at Rally Argentina. Both the Citroen drivers went head-to-head against one another but in the end it was Loeb who triumphed winning the rally convincingly and claimed his 6th title of this event.

Ogier who was in the lead prior to the start of the final days proceedings had an advantage of 47.7 seconds over his team-mate Loeb. Unfortunately the Frenchmen’s advantage was short lived as he managed to roll his DS3 on the first stage reducing his advantage to a meager 21.5 seconds over Loeb at the end of the stage. The impact sustained during the incident resulted in loss of power steering and with 2 more stages to go without any service backup there was not much that he could do.

With Ogier struggling for pace, it was Loeb who went up the order to claim victory. This was despite Ogier’s effort of picking up 3.3 seconds on Loeb during the Power Stage only to claim a disheartening third position. While Mikko Hirvonen, who started the day in second position in his Ford RS WRC, slipped down one place only to benefit from Ogier’s misfortunes to claim the runners up spot. Petter Solberg recovered from his power steering failure incurred during one of the stages on Saturday afternoon and managed to win his first Power Stage of the season and finishing fourth overall.

Meanwhile Mads Ostberg claimed fifth place on his debut outing as he was followed by Federico Villagra claiming sixth overall despite brake troubles incurred during the closing stages of the event. Coming out of retirement from day 2, Jari-Matti Latvala occupied 7th position followed by Matthew Wilson in 8th, Hayden Paddon in 9th and Patrik Flodin who completed the top ten positions of the rally.

Audi claim Le Mans 2011 title

Audi has just clinched their 10th title at the prestigious Le Mans 24 hour race held at Circuit de la Sarthe near the town of Le Mans, France. The win was secured even after the two other Audi cars crashed putting them out of the race.

56 cars had lined up on the grid and the moment the lights went green it was the Audis and Peugeots that headed the charge pulling away swiftly from the rest of the field. Six laps into the race, the first round of causalities took place as Aston Martin Racing LMP1 Team had to retire both their cars numbered 007 & 009 due to technical snags. A couple of more laps into the race and team Audi were in for a shock as their No. 3 car with Allan McNish at the wheel clipped a Luxury Racing Ferrari near the Dunlop chicane resulting in a high speed crash. It took marshals 3 laps to clear up the debris after which the race resumed.

After securing 1 and 2 positions, the Audis were in command with Mike Rockenfeller putting in some impressive performances. Driving the No. 1 car, Mike was well on track until he tried making a move on a Ferrari GTE car just after crossing the Mulsanne Corner which resulted in him colliding into the barriers head-on. This time it took the marshals two and half hours to clear out the wreckage and repair the damaged barrier before the race could resume again. Once it was on, the sole Audi stamped its authority by taking the lead followed by 3 Peugeots who were close behind.

The Peugeot racing team was in trouble when car No. 8 fell behind due to a stop-go penalty while No.7 Peugeot fell behind due to a spin on the circuit. This left the No. 2 Audi and No. 9 Peugeot take on each other to battle it out for the title. Just an hour or so before the end of the race, rain made an appearance making things more difficult for the front runners along with the rest of the field. Finally it was Audi No2 that came out on top, by making full use of the conditions to win the historic 24 hour race with Team Peugeot occupying second and third place respectively.

MRF’s lead driver Gaurav Gill has won the opening round of the Speed Indian National Rally Championships held in Maharashtra recently. The reigning Champion hit speeds of well over 160 km/hr to win the event with an overall lead of 8.3 seconds over his teammate Lohitt V Urs who finished second followed by Sirish Chandran – a fellow motoring scribe and editor of Overdrive magazine – in third position in the 2000cc N+ plus category.

In the 2000cc N category, it was Sirish who took the top spot followed by Shailendra Hegde in second and Rahul Kantharaj in third place respectively. On the other hand in the 1600cc category it was Anirudha Ranganekar who claimed first place with Vignesh Devaraja in second. The Star Cup featured Raghu Nandan B on the top spot of the podium as Deepak Chetty finished runners up followed by Hrishikesh Thakersey in third. It was Sanjay Agarwal who finished first ahead of Sachin Singh and Ranjiv Sally in the Gypsy category.

Meanwhile Gaurav Gill’s partner Musa Sherif had all the more reason to celebrate as he became the first co-driver in India to take part in 200 rallies. Having spent over19 years in the profession, the 39 year old has participated with 61 different drivers and riders in the past.

To hone young Indian talent and prepare him or her for the competitive stages of the international rally circuit, MECO Motorsports, in association with JK Tyre, have formed ‘The Rally Academy’ at the MECO Motorsports Ministry of Speed facility in the GMR complex at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad next month.

The announcement was made at Round 1 of the JK Tyre National Racing Championship by Akbar Ebrahim, President, MECO Motorsport and five-time National Rally Champion, Hari Singh – who will head the academy. PWRC Champion, Karamjit Singh from Malaysia, will be also be a Guest Instructor.

The academy will offer basic and advanced programs over the course of two to three days on Mitsubishi Lancer and Cedia rally cars – on both dirt and tarmac tyres. Stalwart of Indian motorsport, Akbar Ebrahim, explained the motivation behind the program, “It has always been my passion to impart all the knowledge and experience gained in my national and international racing career to young Indian drivers.” Hari Singh further pointed out, “At JK Tyre, we have always believed in promoting and encouraging young talents through our various motorsport programs. The Rally Academy is the first of its kind in India where we will provide the youngsters the right kind of training and support to enter into the professional world of rallying.”

Lucas Auer has won round 6 of the JK Racing Asia Series during the Asian Festival of Speed (AFoS) held in Malaysia recently. The Australian rookie dominated the 5.5 km track with back-to-back pole-to-flag victories. Interestingly he also marked the 100th victory for his team – Eurointernational – by winning the first race of the day. The Australian now has 116 points to his credit and presently leads the championship table.

His second victory of the day came when he finished 6.224 seconds ahead of Irfan Ilyas of the Petronas Mofaz Racing Team while Akash Nandy of Meritus GP came in third. In the first race, it was Auer who won it from start to finish as he was followed by Irfan Ilyas of Petronas Mofaz Racing in second while his teammate Nabil Jeffri managed to finish third giving his team Eurointernational all the more reason to celebrate.

As for the lone Indian rookie Raj Bharath, round 5 was not as rewarding as he would have expected it to be. He managed to finish in 12th position after having started last on the grid. However, the next round saw him progress and he managed a 9th place finish after having started 14th on the grid.

The fourth round of the Volkswagen Scirocco Cup in Lausitzring, Germany, witnessed some intense action between the top five qualifying drivers. It was James Mobley who started the race on pole, defending his position for the initial part of the race as he was followed by Ola Nilsson, Mateusz Lisowski, Daniel Lloyd and Aditya Patel battling for positions. Over the second part of the race, Daniel Lloyd started to turn up the tempo and attacked the top three drivers with Patel trailing the Briton. Finally it was Lloyd who triumphed as Aditya missed out once again in gaining a place on the podium.

The young rookie would have felt a bit disheartened, but a fourth place finish in both the races in Germany and Hockenheim indicate that he has been consistent. Keeping his form in mind, it would not be long before the Indian driving sensation reaps the benefits of his recent performances. Last year’s Polo Cup winner, Sailesh Bolisetti managed to finish 15th in the race.

The 14th edition of the JK National Racing Championship, and the 2nd edition of the JK Tyre Volkswagen Polo Cup, got off to a flying start during the second half of June in Coimbatore.

The VW Polo Cup is now known as the Polo R Cup – the ‘R’ nomenclature coming from Volkswagen R GmbH, which develops the fire breathing R versions of the Golf and Scirocco road cars. This year, the Polo Cup cars benefit from two brawny vents on the bonnet to provide better cooling, and a stronger exhaust note to compliment the whoosh of the turbo.

After nearly 1,600 registrations and 2 intense rounds of selection, 20 young drivers took their place on the starting grid of the 1st race of the second season at Coimbatore’s Kari Motor Speedway. There were 14 new drivers in this year’s competition, which also saw 6 drivers from the previous season return to competition once again – one of them being Vishnu Prasad who finished 3rd overall last year. Vishnu competed fiercely in 2010, and yet again displayed his driving skills by getting back-to-back wins at the first round of this year’s Polo R Cup. In the first race, Vishnu finished on top, and was followed by Mihir Dharkar in 2nd, and Saif Mir in 3rd. Alisha Abdullah, the only woman in the entire championship, also returning from last year, finished in 8th place.

The second race had the top-8 starting in reverse order, which saw Alisha start in pole position and Vishnu Prasad line up all the way back in 8th. Alisha got a good start and held off a charge from the back for ten laps, but neither she nor anyone else could stop Vishnu who fiercely made his way to the front once again, and took the chequered flag to finish first. Vishnu Prasad seemed hungry for victory, and so did newcomer Mihir Dharkar who fought his way from 7th to 2nd place. Alisha meanwhile drove a faultless race to hold onto 3rd place and made history by becoming the first women with a podium finish ever in the Polo Cup – including the international series.

Meanwhile, in the Super Saloon Class, Race 1 was won by Radha Selvarajan followed by Raj Virudhan in 2nd and C Rajaram in 3rd.
autoX contributor, Vir Raina, drove well and managed to grab 10 points by finishing in 6th. In Race 2, Radha Selvarajan had another brilliant race and so did Raj Virudhan, as they finished 1st and 2nd respectively. 3rd place went to Vijaya Kumar, and again Vir brought home a battle scarred Esteem to take 10th position.

Race 1 of the Formula Swift category saw R. Deepak and Karthik Krishna finish in 1st and 2nd positions respectively, and they managed to do the same in Race 2. Prashanth K came in 3rd place in Race 3, while Mohit M grabbed 3rd place in Race 2.
All in all it was a great weekend of racing, which was close and entertaining at all times – and this bodes well for the rest of the season.