Vijay Pushanda

Vijay Pushanda is a race car driver from Calcutta, India. He began his career in open wheel cars, but eventually he switched to stock cars.

Early life
Pushanda was born into a very affluent family in India, and they had enough money for Vijay and his brothers to pursue his racing career. Pushanda is a triplet, and competed against his brother Sulinder in junior formulae. Today, however, Sulinder is Vijay's manager.

Cycling career
Pushanda, in his early days before auto racing, was an amazing track cyclist. He was in the running for the Asian track cycling championship, a position which can normally lead to an Olympic berth. However he was a long shot, and he crashed out in the last lap of the semi-final Keirin event. He would then leave cycling to pursue an auto racing career. However he is trying to organize a track cycling race between his fellow auto racing friends.

Open Wheel Career
Pushanda's Formula A career began with the ill-fated Squadra Mediterranea team. He outpaced his teammate, Velmier Jankovick on debut, but was still far off the leader's pace. A disastrous debut saw Pushanda quickly labelled as a pay driver with no talent, and saw him earn a one race ban. Pushanda would have continued with the Mediterranea team but their next race was their last, closing after the end of the season. Pushanda took his services to Dansa, where he acted as third driver for the team. He ended up replacing Yuliya Nosova in the team after the Russian suddenly quit after the 2005 season.

After starting a disappointing twelfth place on the grid, and after avoiding a first corner pileup that eliminated most of the frontrunners, Pushanda scored his only win in the, 2007 US Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after the race was called 13 laps early due to torrential rain. Pushanda's win was labelled as pure luck at the time. He stayed with Dansa until 2010 when Pushanda chose to continue his racing career in America. Pushanda then moved to America, he began racing in ARLA Formula Overdrive at Quantum KeaTech as a teammate to Christophe Tremblay to get his name on the map.

Stock Car Career
Pushanda began his stock car career at the 2011 Round of Indianapolis, where he failed to qualify his Cromwell entered by Arrow Dynamics. His tendency to get in the way causing an accident earned him the nickname "Vijay Smashanda" by Alexis Rainsford. It was later announced that Vijay will run the π car for Math Motors in the 2012 ARLA Elite Series season, then he announced it was a full-time deal, but he would only run half the races. He then was signed to drive the No. 42 Tutino, for the 2011 Round of Japan and 2011 Round of Brazil. In Japan, he was expected to be a slow backmarker, but he shocked his critics by finishing 11th.

In 2012, he signed on to drive the 42 Tutino, but despite showing enthusiasm for the drive, he was not cleared to run the first race of the season in Las Vegas after a frightening crash in an ARLA race at Talladega the day before. Track doctors said that had they been at a track with lower speeds and therefore a reduced risk of a high speed crash, Pushanda would have been allowed to race. Belen Koumoundorous replaced Pushanda in the race, and finished 21st in a fantastic effort. The next week at Road Atlanta, he matched, Koumoundorous' result with another 21st.

As the season went on, it became relevant that Pushanda was very good at scoring points in attrition filled races, such as a 13th place finish in England, a 16th place in France. He also scored a 13th place finish in an aggressive fuel strategy call in Russia, at a track that was more suited to the slow Tutino. He had an 18th place finish locked up at Quebec, however the Tutino was disqualified for being underweight.

It then became clear that, Tutino needed money Pushanda didn’t have, so he was released after The Round of Quincy. He attempted to qualify for Indy and Decatur, in which he failed to do so in both. He did do a one race stint in British Columbia with Power Steering Incorporated, but that didn’t avail to much.

2013
For 2013, Pushanda announced he would race with Great Lakes Motorsports in the TM Lights Series. Pushanda got the ride really because he filled in for the suspended Ryan Griffin after some of his questionable antics on the track. It was announced shortly afterward that Great Lakes Motorsports was going to field an Independents Trophy car. GLM’s lead driver, Ike Durbin already had a 2013 Independents Trophy ride, so GLM put Pushanda in their entry. He will run the Rounds of, England, Ohio, Grand Detour, and New York. As well as the One-Off races.