Sailesh Bolisetti finishes 13th on his first Euro Racecar outing

31 March, Nogaro (France): Indian driver Sailesh Bolisetti finished a credible 13^th on his first eventful race outing in the Euro Racecar series at Circuit Paul Armagnac here today.

Having qualified 18^th after being unlucky with untimely rain on Saturday, Sailesh immediately put his underlying pace to good use and set out to claw his way back up the grid.

After passing a couple cars on the opening lap, Sailesh seemed to have the pace for a top–ten finish but some mechanical issues with the braking system prevented him from making required progress.

“I’ve done some tough races in the rain and thunderstorms but I think this was the toughest race I’ve ever been in, despite the fact that the track was dry and sun was shining”, exclaimed Sailesh.

“We never had the opportunity to drive the car on the limit for a race distance so there were a few issues which I hadn’t experienced before.”

Soon after charging his way at the start, the Scorpus Racing driver found himself struggling with the car’s handling, particularly the brakes which locked up repeatedly in the braking zones which forced him to back off and drop as far as 20th at one point.

It was later discovered that the brakes on his 450 bhp Chevrolet Corvette had a tendency to go soft after the first couple of laps and required frequent pumping to keep them working throughout the race.

“I wasn’t using even half the brake pressure and yet the front tyres would just lock up whenever I touched the pedal”, he revealed.

But once he adapted his driving style to accommodate the Euro Racecar’s quirky handling, he managed to claw his way back up the field and eventually cross the line in 13^th place.

“There was lock–up, understeer, oversteer everything at the same time. I’ve never ever manhandled a race car like this before”, he added exasperatedly.

“Plus there a bunch of things you can’t learn while doing laps on your own – the starts, overtaking, judging distances when other cars are close and so on.”

“Stock car racing is said to be a contact sport and yet I didn’t have even a single incident despite all the handling issues and the pace has improved massively, which is great news!” he enthused.

Notably, Sailesh is the only completely novice driver in the series, with the grid being made up of 24 pro drivers who have prior experience of the cars and circuits, including reigning champion Ander Vilarino.

“I learnt more about the car in this one race than I did in all practice/qualifying sessions combined. So I hope to continue working in the same direction for second race as well and round off my debut weekend on a positive note”, he concluded.