Aditya and Sailesh in German quest

CHENNAI: There will be a distinct Indian flavor at the races held this weekend at Nurburgring.
Two Indian drivers are in Germany, in an around the village of Nurburg a little north of Cologne to be exact, to make a mark in their new quests.
Chennai-lad Aditya Patel is set to make history, becoming the first Indian to take part in a 24-hour race when he shares driving duties with teammates in the Audi TTS car of Team Pro Handicap e.V at the Nurburgring 24 hours this weekend (May 19 and 20), a race which is part of the VLN Endurance series.
Meanwhile, Sailesh Bolisetti, the Vizag lad who made waves last month with his double podium finish on debut at the British GT championship, will take his Lotus Evora GT-4 out with teammate Phil Glew for the second round of the series.
The duo is in a new car to what they drove in the first round at Oulton Park in the UK last month. The car set-up was not optimum, and they even faced some technical snags during the qualifying session on Friday. But Bolisetti and Glew still qualified in second position for the two races at the weekend.
Interestingly, both Aditya and Bolisetti will be driving at the same track - the Nurburgring, albeit in different segments.
Aditya will be driving his Audi at the infamous 'Green Hell' - the Nurburgring Nordschleife (Northern loop) - which is a 25-km or 15.5-mile track used exclusively for endurance racing. Bolisetti will be burning rubber a little south on the GP-Strecke, the more famous 5.184-km track where F1 races are held.
Both the drivers are keen to make a mark.
The 24-year-old Aditya has been to Nurburgring before but not at the Nordschleife and not driving a 24 hours race, out of which he will be driving at least seven hours (two hours at a stretch), sharing duties with two other teammates.
The track, with its blind and fast corners, is a challenge in itself. And Aditya has to get used to a new form of racing and the former national champ is bracing himself for the tough weekend.
"It's a mad track," Aditya told ToI. "I mean, we all hear about it being super fast and extremely dangerous but you don't realize how fast and dangerous it is till you actually drive around it. But somehow, you just can get enough of this circuit. To be driving through corners at over 200 kmph and not knowing what's on the other side of the corner is a real rush."
During the practice session Aditya's Audi was fifth in the category they are racing while and 116th overall in a grid with more than 170 cars. And overtaking cars is not the strategy that can be used for endurance racing. It's about pushing and ensuring the car completes the race.
"The approach, at least for my first outing, is to learn what its like to pace myself for two hour stints. I have to remember that the car needs to last 24 hours and it's important to stay on the track. Fighting for position on track is out of the question," said Aditya.
Audi are the masters of endurance and sports car racing, their team being the reigning Le Mans champions and their cars are currently leaders at the World Endurance Championship. Aditya, who has signed a three-year contract with the German car manufacturer, knows that if he makes a mark at the VLN series this season his career will get a new impetus with support from Audi.
Meanwhile, Bolisetti has a different set of challenges to contend with in the second round of the British GT. He and teammate Glew were excited having got their new cars for Sunday's race.
Their new Evora, with the traditional black and gold livery of Lotus, also has a new chassis and Bolisetti and Glew were busy working on set up, including brakes and suspension, right through free practice on Thursday and qualifying session on Friday. They were happy with the progress and believe there is scope to improve the pace of the car further.
"I knew this was going to be one of the toughest weekends of the season, given that we haven't done any testing. "But it has exceeded my expectations for now and we are looking forward to qualifying," said Bolisetti.
"The brakes and suspension seemed different from the car I had used in the first round, so it took some time getting comfortable", he added before explaining an added challenge at Nurburgring.
The Vizag lad also has to cope with a new layout in the circuit - as the GP track has been extensively modified with different corner sequences for the British GT weekend.
"I thought I'd know the track, playing games and so on but the layout turned out to be something else entirely. Bits of it I could recall, but the flow of each corner into another was way off what I remembered. So a couple of laps later, I just forgot about it and drove it like it was a brand-new circuit," said Bolisetti.