Volkswagen Ameo Cup 2018: 19 drivers selected to make up season's grid

After a selection process that included fitness and karting sessions Volkswagen Motorsport India has selected 19 drivers to make up the grid for the 2018 Volkswagen Ameo Cup.

The selection trials were held on January 27-28 at the Indi Karting Track in Kharadi, Pune and were conducted by VW Motorsport India's driver coach, Rayomand Banajee.

The first day of the driving selection process consisted of three karting sessions which helped the participants get comfortable with their karts. The first session consisted of slalom course to understand the handling characteristics of the karts, followed by cornering drills, which helped extract the raw potential of the participating drivers, as they had to get as close to the apex as possible as they made their turn. The third session was a timed lap, which helped the selectors to group drivers with similar lap times together for the next day. These lap times were not considered in the evaluation process.

The next day started off with fitness sessions wherein, all participating drivers were required to run three timed laps of the track. Post running, the participants had to prove their muscle strength through push-ups in 60 seconds. Post the fitness sessions, the participants took to the karts once again and were judged on their racing line and driving technique. This was also followed by a timed lap in the kart, which helped to tally the final score.

The format of the Volkswagen Ameo Cup 2018 will remain the same as the recently concluded Volkswagen Ameo Cup 2017. There would be in total 10 races throughout the season and the drivers would be classified in Pro and Junior category based on their experience in racing. At the end of the season, the winner of the Ameo Cup Pro category would get a sponsored seat in a higher series of racing while the winner of the Ameo Cup Junior category would get a sponsored seat in the Ameo Cup for one more year to get developed further.

The youngest driver selected this season is a 19 year old from Lucknow and the only international participant is from Bangladesh.