Sailesh Bolisetti qualifies 18th on Euro Racecar debut

30 March, Nogaro (France): Indian driver Sailesh Bolisetti has qualified 18^th for the season–opener of the 2013 Euro Racecar season at Circuit Paul Armagnac in Nogaro, France.

The first Indian to compete in the European Stock Car championship, Sailesh’s run up to the weekend was extremely chaotic as uncharacteristically bad weather continued to lash South of France, with torrential rainfall, thunderstorms, cyclones and hail storms battering the circuit constantly since Friday.

Two practice sessions on Friday and another one on Saturday helped Sailesh acclimatise to the conditions and slick tyres.

“We had a shakedown of the car one week back and conditions were even worse, so we had no chance to put on the slick tyres.

“Friday was the first time we tried them and the car is a completely different animal on those – there is a lot of grip”, remarked Sailesh who will start on the ninth row for his debut race.

 A few mechanical niggles including a leaking rear differential and a glitch in the fuel system ate into Sailesh’s track time during the practice sessions but he managed to build up his confidence behind the wheel of the 400 bhp, V8–powered Chevrolet Camaro SS.

“This car demands a very different driving style compared to cars I’ve raced before. The tyres are really wide and grippy, so you can be really aggressive with the car into the corner, and drift to maximise corner exits”, he revealed.

“Normally when you’re drifting in a race car you’re losing time but here that’s exactly what is needed. I’m still getting my head around it, by the end of the weekend we should be there.”

Despite a marked improvement in pace, qualifying turned out be a disappointing affair as a couple of minutes into the session, another car went off track and got stuck in a gravel trap which brought out yellow flags in that sector.

As a result Sailesh had to slow down every lap during qualifying in accordance with the sporting regulations, losing a bunch of time every time he passed the stuck car.

In the end, his time of 1:38.102 meant the Scorpus Racing driver would start 18^th out of 24 cars.

“It was quite frustrating – I knew I was quick in the other two sectors but had to back off because of the yellows.

“I reckon we’d have lost around 1.2 seconds or so because of that, so we could’ve actually qualified inside the top 15. The rain also came down towards the end, and on slick tyres it meant there was no room for improvement.

“Hopefully we’d be able to show the true potential in the race and finish higher than our qualifying position with an improvement in pace. That’s my aim for now – improving my own pace with every passing session and learning as much about the car in the process.”

Race 1 is scheduled at Nogaro on Sunday, March 31 with the second race to be held on April 1.