PoloDriver

Volkswagen Motorsport world rally championship drivers Sébastien Ogier and Andreas Mikkelsen both managed a top 10 finish at the outfit’s home round, the ADAC Rallye Deutschland, on 25-26 August. Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia finished the event sixth overall, while Mikkelsen, partnered with Ola Fløene, completed the event around Trier one place behind. It was a particularly sweet victory for Ogier and Ingrassia, taking the best result for an S2000 car in WRC history, with their Škoda Fabia S2000. But the following Norwegians did well too: in the closing ‘Power Stage’, Mikkelsen and Fløene took third place and became the first Super 2000 car ever to claim an additional point.

At the wheel of his Škoda Fabia S2000, Ogier once again dominated the less powerful S2000 class over the 15 special stages covering 1110 kilometres in total. The Frenchman clinched eleven class-best times and was quicker than many other more powerful World Rally Cars. ‘I’m totally happy with the result because the Deutschland rally is one of the most difficult tarmac events on the calendar,’ said the delighted Frenchman. ‘In the vineyards and on the Panzerplatte stage, Julien and I found an almost perfect rhythm. More power would be nice – I can’t wait to return here next year with the Polo R WRC.’

Mikkelsen was also satisfied with his seventh place, marking his best result in an S2000 car in the World Rally Championship. ‘A fantastic weekend for our team. I tried not to lose too much on Ogier and I think my pace was good this weekend. The Michelin tyres for the asphalt stages of the WRC were new for me,’ remarked the defending champion and points’ leader of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC). A brilliant performance at the final stage around the Porta Nigra helped, where the Norwegian pairing were the first Super 2000 pilots ever to achieve a top three stage result and pocket that vital extra point.

German driver Sepp Wiegand, who was piloting the third Volkswagen car with Timo Gottschalk, was lying in eleventh position on his home rally, but was unlucky and was forced to retire with suspension failure on the 13th special stage. ‘An exceptional effort from our entire team and the three crews – all the boys have performed very well this weekend,’ said a very satisfied Volkswagen Motorsport Director Jost Capito. ‘We may have profited from the retirement of some prominent competitors in the WRC field, but that doesn’t take anything away from our performance. Ogier and Mikkelsen drove at a consistently high pace, and Sepp Wiegand also did a great job up until his unfortunate retirement.’

Volkswagen recently showcased the Polo R WRC to the FC Schalke 04 football team, during preparation for the forthcoming season. Thirty-five squad members took part in a road safety training course at the invitation of Volkswagen, a partner sponsor of the team. Goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall and others were allowed an outing in the Polo R WRC car, taking the role of co-driver for test driver Dieter Depping. Volkswagen Motorsport enters the FIA World Rally Championship next year, with up to three fully-tested examples of the aggressive four-wheel drive, 300bhp rally car.

It was business as usual for the Volkswagen Motorsport team, as Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia recorded a seventh consecutive S2000 class victory at the Neste Oil Rally Finland. Coming in 10th overall, the pair finished just behind winner fellow Frenchman Sébastien Loeb. ‘I’m satisfied with tenth place. On the fast gravel tracks like the legendary Ouninpohja stage, we extracted absolute everything that was possible from our Škoda Fabia, when compared to the significantly more powerful WRC cars. Obviously next year we aim to be higher up the field with the 300bhp, four-wheel drive Polo R WRC,’ Ogier enthused.

Nearly 300,000 spectators saw the French pair cross the line, after 18 special stages, stretching over 304 kilometres – some with 50-metre jumps – and speeds of up to 125mph. Meanwhile in the number two car, Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene from Norway finished 10th in the S2000 class, after battling with an electrical problem on the tenth special stage, losing almost nine minutes. A later puncture saw them further down the field, although Mikkelsen’s battling spirit saw the duo finish in 27th place. Ogier and Ingrassia didn’t escape mechanical maladies, either – suffering from a broken damper on the same stage.

‘With its hard and fast gravel tracks this Rally Finland certainly numbers to the most challenging and spectacular rallies this year,” said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Jost Capito. ‘The entire team deserves great praise for doing a great job and for quickly solving the small problems that appeared. The driver teams were in good form despite the difficult and tough conditions and collected valuable experience for our WRC programme next year.’ The next round of the WRC is the ADAC Rallye Deutschland in Germany, on 26-28 August.

News is coming in that the Polo R WRC rally car is to get a firebreathing extra-hot Global Rallycross Championship (GRC) sister. With 600bhp (twice that of the WRC car), erc24.com reports that Volkswagen Motorsport is interested in committing to both the 2013 series and the proposed European X Games events, which take place in Barcelona and Munich in May and June respectively. With door-to-door racing as opposed to timed stages, the Polo ‘R GRC’ could propel the model to further international motorsport recognition, arriving a few months after the start of the 2013 World Rally Championship calendar in which the ‘lower-powered’ WRC car will compete.

[Source: erc24.com]

If, like us, you’ve yet to see the 300bhp, four-wheel-drive Polo R WRC up close and personal, AutoMuseum Volkswagen is offering you the chance to do just that. It stars in a new exhibition, ‘Motorsport with Volkswagen’, which charts the development of the company’s motorsport programme over the past 60 years. Starting with the 1930s Berlin-Rome car, there’s also the Mille-Miglia Beetle from the 1950s, as well as 1960s Formula Vee racers, which laid the cornerstones from which the company’s motorsport activities are derived from today. Rally-winning Golfs also feature, as does a Dakar Rally Race Touareg. The Polo R WRC is the newest exhibit on display, and appears to be the non-running prototype car presented to the motoring press in Sardinia in May 2011.

The AutoMuseum Volkswagen is a 5000sq m building in which Volkswagen displays notable versions of its past and present models, just a stone’s throw away from the main plant, HQ and tourist attraction Autostadt in Wolfsburg. Opened in April 1985, it displays 140 vehicles on a rotation basis, so no two visits are likely to be the same. The Stiftung AutoMuseum Volkswagen can be found at Dieselstraße 35, 38446 Wolfsburg, Germany. The motorsport exhibition runs until 30 September 2012.