Sailesh Bolisetti first Indian to drive in the British GT Championship
22 January 2012:
Indian racer Sailesh Bolisetti will be racing for Lotus Sport UK in the 2012 Avon Tyres British GT Championship. The 23-year old from Visakhapatnam will pilot the Lotus Evora in the GT4 class of the series according to a Press Release from Motorsport NewsWire
Having made touring cars the focus of his career since he started racing in 2008, Sailesh quickly proved his competence in a field packed with highly-experienced saloon car racers. He went on to win the inaugural Indian VW Polo Cup title in 2010 and was consequently offered a drive in the VW Scirocco-R Cup for the 2011 season. With tightly packed, limited-time sessions on new racetracks, the Scirocco Cup was a steep learning curve but he showed commendable improvement and was a much more rounded driver at the end of his debut international season.
Aspiring to compete in top-flight touring and sportscar championships like DTM and Le Mans, Bolisetti thinks that the hard-contested British GT championship will be the right step up in terms of competition, equipment and team involvement.
“This will be a completely different experience when driving to one-make series – the car’s obviously quicker than whatever I’ve driven before and handling is in a different league, given the mid-engined layout.”
“But it is more than the car alone – this is a factory team with a test-track, which is also used for F1 testing. Hence all their efforts and resources will be focused on making our car/driver combination as competitive as possible. It is a great commitment since brand Lotus will compete in the same grid as Ferraris, Porsches and Aston Martins, leaving no room for complacency.”
“It is definitely a privilege to get an opportunity to represent a marque with such a rich pedigree across a uniquely wide range of racing disciplines – some of the best drivers in the business have been associated with Lotus, so I am extremely motivated and can’t wait for the season to kick off.”
Even though Sailesh has already sampled the 355bhp Evora GT4 race car at the factory test track in Norfolk, he will get some more seat time under his belt in the next two months before the British GT season kicks off at Oulton Park on April 7. The official pre-season tests will focus on more specific set-up work, with qualifying and race distance simulations on the menu as well.
Lotus Sport UK team manager, Gary Ayles, has had a tryst with India, being involved with the A1GP India team and having raced Formula 3 at the Chennai Circuit in the 1990s. “Sailesh is a strong talent that hadn’t been discovered in Europe, until now. I first got to know him and his father through my contacts in India and we kept in touch. Now he has come of age and is ready to race here in Europe with our team – you need to keep an eye on this lad, he has immense potential”, he quipped.
In addition to the pre-season testing duties in the run up to the season opener, Bolisetti will also contest the five-round i1 super series in February and March, where he’ll compete in Radical SR3 cars with the final round of the series scheduled at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida.
LOTUS EVORA GT4 SPECS
ENGINE: 4.0-litre DOHC V6, Naturally-Aspirated with dry-sump
MAX POWER: 355bhp@6500rpm
MAX TORQUE: 445Nm@5500rpm
REDLINE: 7000rpm
DRIVETRAIN: Mid-Engined, Rear Wheel Drive
GEARBOX: Sequential 6-speed
WEIGHT: 1190kg
2012 AVON TYRES BRITISH GT CHAMPIONSHIP CALENDAR
Oulton Park, UK April 7th
Nurburgring, Germany May 17th
Rockingham, UK June 9th
Brands Hatch, UK June 23rd
Snetterton, UK August 4th
Silverstone, UK September 9th
Donington Park, UK September 29th
About Sailesh Bolisetti:
Born September 28th, 1988 Sailesh made his debut driving a couple of rounds in the JK Tyre National Racing Championship in 2008 – having decided to go the tin-top route instead of the more commonly opted single-seater formula racing. This focus allowed him to excel from the get go and he managed to finish third in the Indian Touring Car championship in 2009 – his first full season in racing.
In 2010, he was on the cusp of the Super Saloon title but had to settle for a close second but more than made up for the disappointment by winning the inaugural Volkswagen Polo Cup India title, which he raced concurrently. The prize? A drive in the European VW Scirocco-R Cup for the 2011 season.
The Scirocco Cup campaign saw Sailesh fight long and hard throughout the year, battling against the odds of new tracks, new machinery and a race environment that was a huge departure from his experience in India. Taking away from the experience of his international debut season, Sailesh is now set to compete in his first professional GT series with a factory team and looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead.
ends/
MN release
