Post-pandemic, the concept of E-racing has seen the flow of a lot of expert players and valuable brands. The most popular name, associated with E-racing is Volkswagen. And finally, Volkswagen Motorsport India (VMI) has announced the final names of the participants for the inaugural Volkswagen Virtual Racing Championship (VW-VRC), to be held from 21st November 2020. The initial process saw over 4500 registrations, from across the world, registering for the inaugural championship, out of which only 28 made it to the 2020 Polo Championship (one-make series). The first-of-its-kind championship in India, VW-VRC will be offering high driving standards of real racing to all the selected contestants, in a virtual environment.
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As part of the overall championship process, the 4500 registered participants qualified using a keyboard or Simulator (PC/laptop) or PlayStation for the selection stages. The contestants were provided with initial training through webinars, after which they underwent rigorous qualifying rounds. In the end, 28 athletes made it to the championship and will now compete against one another in the upcoming races.
For the upcoming racing schedules, VMI will keep a track of the championship, through race controls, and will ensure that the races are being organized as per protocols. To make it a fair platform, participants will have access to data from the game to help them analyze and improve their driving skills. VMI will aim to safeguard the interest of all the participants and their teams by following all the safety precautions. Additionally, VMI will take strict actions against the participants who show unsportsmanlike behavior, break the rules, or disregard the safety protocols during the length of the championship.
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.”
Aligned to the real racing format, VW-VRC will include five rounds with two races per round. Each event will witness the additional participation of 2 guest racers. Individual rounds will further consist of three practice sessions, one qualifying session, and two races. The grid for the first race will be formed on the basis of the qualifying session, while the grid for the second race will be based on the top 12 contenders finishing in the first race, being reversed for the start of the second race. Further, the format for the points system for the VW-VRC will remain as the real-world Polo Championship.
The final names of participants, according to Volkswagen are:
| Name | City |
|---|---|
| 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 |