Vizag lad set to ride in British GT

Cheshire (UK): Indian saloon car racer Sailesh Bolisetti is all set to make his British GT debut with the Lotus Sport UK at the Oulton Park circuit here this weekend.

Sailesh will be piloting the Lotus Evora in the GT4 category, amidst strong competition from Nissan 370Z, BMW M3, Aston Martin N24, Ginetta G50 and Mazda MX5 GT. Having got some track time in the Evora GT4 last month, the Vizag lad concedes it is going to be a learning curve. "My first experience in the Evora was overwhelming. It was a completely different beast to anything else I had driven before," Sailesh said. The driver, though, had to make considerable changes to his driving style to adapt to the 360 bhp rear-drive race car since he has exclusively raced front-wheel drive cars throughout his career. "Maybe it didn`t help that it was my first time in a rear-wheel drive, but after a few sessions I was reasonably comfortable with its behaviour and I am looking forward to carry the momentum into my first race weekend," he said. The team was satisfied with Sailesh`s progress at the test, with his experienced teammate Phil Glew acting as the benchmark throughout. The weekend at Oulton Park comprises of two practice sessions, two qualifying sessions and two one-hour races. Harbouring the ambition to drive Le Mans-style endurance events, the format finds favour with the 2010 Volkswagen Polo Cup India champion. "To me, long, endurance-style racing appeals more rather than 30-minute sprints. In that sense, I think this is the right first step as the races are an hour long minimum, we have a couple of two-hour events and even a three-hour event on calendar later in the season," the driver expressed. PTI