PoloDriver

It’s been another busy and exciting year for the Volkswagen Polo. Of course, the big news of 2014 has been the worldwide launch of a comprehensively revised version of the fifth-generation Polo. New engines, safety technology, interior refinements and a gently restyled exterior update it against refreshed competition.

On the asphalt and gravel stages of the World Rally Championship, the Polo has, like 2013, once again come out on top. Taking 12 event wins out of 13, the 300bhp four-wheel drive Polo R WRC has claimed the Manufacturers’ Championship title for Volkswagen Motorsport, and also carried Frenchmen Sébastien Ogier the Julien Ingrassia to their second consecutive Drivers’ Championship prize.

Other Polo-based motorsport series have also continued around the globe, with Wolfsburg’s small car competing as a rally, rallycross and also a track machine. Here, we round up the Polo’s biggest achievements in 2014. (Bold entries are illustrated by the picture above that particular month.)

January

– Refreshed fifth-generation Polo (known as ‘6C’) presented in Wolfsburg
– Polo ends 2013 as the eighth best-selling car in the UK
– 2014-specification Polo R WRC rally car unveiled

– Sébastien Ogier wins 2014 Rallye Monte Carlo with Polo R WRC

– Polo Vivo and is the best-selling car in South Africa for 2013; Polo 6R is runner-up

– Polo is the fifth best-selling car in the UK.

February

– Jari-Matti Latavala takes Polo R WRC to victory in Rally Sweden
– New Polo MY2015 production starts at Volkswagen Navarra factory
– New Polo BlueMotion, BlueGT and CrossPolo revealed ahead of Geneva motor show
– Volkswagen Motorsport signs rallycross partnership with Marklund Motorsport
– Polo is the sixth best-selling car in the UK.

March
– Mathew Hodges and Daniel Rowe take wins at 2014 Engen Volkswagen Cup opener
– Sébastien Ogier wins Rally Mexico, with Jari-Matti Latvala in second place
– Polo hatchback and saloon prices reduced in Brazil
– Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo S2000 triumph at 2014 Tour Natal Rally
– New Polo released for UK ordering – prices and full specifications announced
– Dewald Brummer and Tasmin Pepper take Engen Volkswagen Cup spoils at Killarney
– Polo is the seventh best-selling car in the UK.

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The Volkswagen Polo R-Cup India 2014 came to an exciting and dramatic end on the weekend of 13-14 December, with Karthik Tharani crowned this season’s champion. The 20 year-old student took the spoils at the Formula 1 Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, ahead of Karminder Pal Singh who led the driver rankings before the championship finale.

Tharani was 70 points behind Singh at the start of the last round, but narrowed the gap between his compatriot, thanks to two race wins by the end of day one. Going into day two, Singh was leading by only 33 points. Race finishing positions of third, fourth and seventh were not enough for him to keep his championship lead.

Indian national karting champion Ameya Bafna triumphed in the second and third races ahead of Tharani, but was ineligible for points. Tharani therefore collected the full set of points for the victory as he came home in second place, helping him overturn Singh in the driver rankings.

As is usual in Polo racing, the last round of the Volkswagen Polo R-Cup India 2014 championship wasn’t without on-track drama. In race one, Anshul Shah lost control and rolled his car on the very first corner. Race two saw all the racing Polos switch to wet tyres to deal with the drizzly conditions.

Tharani went into a wet race three in pole position, but soon lost the lead to Lee Keshav. Tharani overcame Keshav, though, to clinch back the lead with Bafna following close behind at the head of the chasing pack. As the pair headed into turn three on the last lap, they were side-by-side with Bafna taking the inside line. Tharani ultimately lost the lead, but his job was done and the championship title was his.

Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India, Sirish Vissa, said: ‘Karthik has shown excellent pace throughout the season and this weekend was just perfect for him. With 180 points scored in the three races of Round 4, he has proved to be the best of the lot and rightfully deserves to be the champion.’

Tharani meanwhile was pleased with his result: ‘I came to the last round of the season determined to put up the best show and with a win and a second place yesterday, I was even more motivated for today’s race. Ameya and I had a good battle on the last lap but he proved to be the better one.

‘Nonetheless, I was happy to earn the most important points which helped me lift the championship today. I would like to thank Volkswagen Motorsport India for giving us all a truly international racing platform and developing us throughout the season.’

Volkswagen Motorsport India runs the Volkswagen Polo R-Cup India 2014 series in conjunction with JK Tyres. The field of young largely Indian racers drive identical and centrally-prepared 1.4-litre TSI-engined, 178bhp Polo R-Cup cars.

JK TYRE VOLKSWAGEN POLO R-CUP INDIA 2014,

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1 Karthik Tharani, 358
2 Karminder Pal Singh, 347
3 = Bonnie Thomas, 296
3 = Anindith Reddy, 296

The Polo R WRC may have finished competitive duties for 2014, but a series of promotional activities has ensured Volkswagen’s World Rally Championship-winning car has remained in the public’s consciousness, no doubt increasing the visibility of the VW brand.

‘Wetten, dass..?’ parkhaus challenge
Last weekend, more than nine million viewers of German TV show ‘Wetten, dass..?’ (‘You Bet’) watched the reigning World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier compete against a climber in a timed ascent and descent of a multi-storey car park or ‘parkhaus’.

TV channel ZDF said goodbye to the long-running programme in some style as Ogier’s 300bhp Polo R WRC blared, slid, and slithered up and down the car park’s damp access ramps and rooftop.

Jakob Vöckler challenged Ogier to the duel, claiming he could climb up and down the exterior of the car park faster than the Frenchman who was driving his rally Polo inside the building.

The climber from Munich was faster in the end, Ogier not quite being able to guide the Polo through the serpentine car park fast enough. ‘Congratulations to Jakob. It was something new driving through a multi-storey car park to win a bet and was enormous fun,’ commented the Volkswagen driver.

Barcelona taxi ride

Ogier has been busy showing of the rally Polo in the mountains above Montserrat in Barcelona, too. Brazilian striker Neymar Jr, of FC Barcelona football club donned VW Motorsport overalls to be co-driver for the French rally driver.

Or at least that was the plan. Ogier’s extreme driving style quickly rendered him useless. Seeing the football player is unable to cope, Ogier instructs him to lose his ‘pace notes’ and ‘Just sit back and enjoy the ride’.

Unashamedly a promotional video for one of Volkwagen’s motorsport partners, Red Bull, it does show the Polo R WRC to dramatic and aggressive effect.

Award ceremonies

The Polo R WRC has also been to International Automobile Federation (FIA) Prize-Giving Gala in Doha where Volkswagen was presented with the trophies for the 2014 Manufacturer, Driver and Co-Driver titles in the FIA World Rally Championship.

The car and Sébastien Ogier were also among the prizewinners at the 2014 Autosport Awards in London. Readers of the UK magazine voted the Polo R WRC the ‘Rally Car of the Year’, while Ogier won the ‘International Rally Driver of the Year’ title.

The 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship may be over, but the Volkswagen Polo RXs of Marklund Motorsport were in action over the weekend of 13-14 December at the annual Race of Champions.

The Carribean island of Barbados was the venue for the 2014 event which sees motorsport legends compete each other and teamed up with fellow drivers from the same country to fight the Nations Cup.

The 600bhp Polo RXs were piloted by motorsport stars such as nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship winner Petter Solberg, and overall victor F1’s David Coulthard. Duels were fought around a parallel course at Bushy Park.

After a close finish, Marklund Motorsport has ended the inaugural season of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in second place, behind Ford Olsbergs MSE. The Marklund Motorsport team were leading the Teams’ Championship going into the competition at the Total Rallycross of Argentina.

The Swedish-run team settled for second, after a three-way battle with the Ford Olsbergs MSE outfit and Team Peugeot-Hansen. Only four points separated the three teams going into the final races at San Luis.

Toomas ‘Topi’ Heikinnen claimed second place in the semi-final number two. The Finn came fifth in the final. Former World Rally Championship driver Petter Solberg took the season’s spoils in the Drivers’ Championship, with Heikinnen second.

Heikinnen’s team-mate Anton Marklund completed the season in sixth place in the Drivers’ Championship, after a varied season which has seen the young Swede up his game quite considerably.

Heikinnen’s Polo RX Supercar suffered gearbox failure at the end of heat two, while he and Marklund were in first and eighth positions after heat three. Hot sun gave way to pouring rain for day two, and Marklund made adjustments to his Polo to enable it to better suit the slippery conditions.

‘We made quite a lot of changes overnight to the car to make it better on the gravel. It was starting to rain quite heavily when I was in the pre-grid area before heat three, other drivers were putting the rain tyres on but I stuck with the slicks.

‘Maybe it was the right choice, maybe the wrong choice, I don’t know really. I pushed as hard as I could and was sixth overall and closed the gap to the lead in the guys above me in the intermediate points,’ said Marklund.

But the mechanical maladies weren’t over for Heikinnen. The Finn’s Polo RX suffered engine failure on the final lap of the final qualifying heat, slowing to a stop just before the last corner. The Marklund Motorsport team changed the engine for one used previously in the season, so didn’t incur any penalties for using a new engine.

Overall, though, the team was pleased with its result. Marklund commented: ‘It’s always disappointing to be second but actually our aim at the start of the year was to finish in the top three so this is something we must all remember.

‘I think we have learned a lot for next year and we will be back and fighting hard. Topi finished second in the drivers’ standings to finish the year with two second places is something our whole team are really happy with.’

The 2015 FIA World Rallycross Championship season gets underway on 24 April 2015 with the first round in Montalegre, Portugal.

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Petter Solberg, 267
2 Toomas Heikkinen, 221

3 Reinis Nitiss, 210

4 Timmy Hansen, 199
5 Andreas Bakkerud, 193
6 Anton Marklund, 173

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Ford Olsbergs MSE, 403
2 Volkswagen Marklund, 394
3 Team Peugeot-Hansen, 351
4 PSRX, 261
5 Monster Energy World RX Team, 76