Volkswagen Motorsport India (VMI) has kicked-off the inaugural Volkswagen Virtual Racing Championship (VW-VRC) with final contestants selected for the series. First announced in August this year, the selection process saw over 4500 registrations from across the world, out of which only 28 participants will be competing in the virtual racing series. The finalists will be competing in the 2020 Polo Championship, a virtual one-make series, which is the first-of-its-kind in India.
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Commenting on the occasion, Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India said, "We would like to congratulate all the 28 participants and wish them luck for the championship. The VW-VRC is our responsible prospect to touch base with scores of motorsport followers from across the world. Bringing the virtual racing format for the first time in India, we are confident that the championship will receive the same positive response as our track competition."
The Virtual Polo Championship will follow real racing format complete with 3 practice sessions, 1 qualifying, and 2 races in each round
The VW-VRC Polo Championship is aligned with the real racing format and will comprise five rounds with two races per round. Each event will witness additional participation of two guest racers. The individual rounds will be further divided into three practice sessions, one qualifying session and two races. The qualifying session will form the basis of the grid for the first race, while a reverse grid format for the top 12 contenders will be the basis of the second race. The format for the VW-VRC points system will remain as the real-world Polo Championship.
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Even though participants will be competing virtually, they will be required to observe rules and regulations of the track
The participants will be driving a virtual race-spec Polo in the championship. VMI says that it will keep a track of the championship through race controls virtually. The virtual platform will remain fair for all participants and contenders will have access to data from the game to help them analyse and improve their driving skills. Action will also be taken against participants who break rules or show unsportsmanlike behaviour, the company said in a statement.
Final list of participants:
Raiden Samervel (Mumbai)
Tej Patel (Mumbai)
Munjal Savla (Mumbai)
Aashish Raj (Mumbai)
Jamie Shaw (Mumbai)
Aaroh Ravindra (Mumbai)
Anuj Raj (Mumbai)
Raj Tula (Mumbai)
Swaraj Yadav (Navi Mumbai)
Raghav Budhiraja (New Delhi)
Neraj Natarajan (New Delhi)
Amith Kutti (Chennai)
Abhinay Bikkani (Bengaluru)
Glen Suchitha (Bengaluru)
Lalit Jhabakh (Hyderabad)
Nirav Jain (Hyderabad)
Rohit Raut (Pune)
Pratik Sonawane (Pune)
Abhimanyu S Menon (Ernakulam)
Garvit Lodha (Jodhpur)
Sidharth Sathyan (Kozhikode)
Navneet Kumar (Ranchi)
Divyang Dodia (Navsari / Canada)
Steve Smuts (Abu Dhabi / South Africa)
Aditya Pawar (Arnhem, Netherlands)
Oshan Kothadiya (Eindhoven, Netherlands)
H M Tauhid Anwar (Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Rishabh Banerjee (Singapore)
