PoloDriver

It was an exciting end to an, at times, difficult season for Volkswagen Motorsport South Africa, as Han Weijs Jnr and Björn Degandt took victory in their Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo S2000 at the Bela-Bela Motor Rally on 22 November. The Bela-Bela was the final round in the 2014 South African National Rally Championship.

The result places the duo second overall in the 2014 championship standings. The Bela-Bela Rally is the fifth occasion during the eight-round 2014 national championship that Weijs and Degandt have finished on the podium. The season finale is their best result this year.

‘I like technical stages and we were involved in a good fight at this event,’ said Weijs. ‘This was a good rally for us. We pushed hard but it was very important to finish here in Bela-Bela, in order to claim second overall in the championship. We had to pace ourselves very carefully and keep the overall goal in mind.’

Weijs and Degant’s team-mates Henk Lategan and Barry White brought their Polo home fourth, while Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin rounded out the top five finishers. Zulu and Peskin are fifth in the championship standings while Lategan and White are one place below.

Lategan and White had to deal with a number of difficulties but managed to eventually overcome them. ‘We had some technical niggles throughout this event,’ Lategan commented. ‘ But despite the problems, the results for the team are a morale booster and we produced a good result, a strong end to the season and one we can be happy with.’

‘The 2014 season has been a real challenge for us, we’ve had to work hard to stay in the fight,’ reflected Zulu. ‘We started this event well but the very loose surfaces here gave us some trouble, which saw us lose time against our rivals.

‘Carl and I did post good stage results, within seconds of the other teams, but overall our time deficit cost us what could have been an even better result. A strong finish at this event – and for the season – means we start 2015 on a positive note and ready for the challenge.’

Mike Rowe, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport South Africa praised his squad: ‘This is a fitting end to the season for the Volkswagen Sasolracing team. It has been a fight for the Polos out on the stages at this event, trading stage times with our competitors, at our most competitive level.

‘We will be looking to starting the 2015 season on the same note. We have overcome a number of challenges this year,’ Rowe continued. ‘There is much work still to do, but we will be coming out strong for our 2015 campaign with the results achieved now forming a strong foundation for next season.’

Volkswagen Motorsport ended its record-breaking World Rally Championship (WRC) season with a win at Wales Rally GB from 13-16 November. Once again Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia took the spoils, slipping and sliding their Polo R WRC to finish first ahead of Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen, and Citroën’s Mads Østberg and Jonas Andersson.

The #2 Polo R WRC of Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila came home eighth, a good result after the pair suffered a number of setbacks in north Wales. The British event proved eventful for Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene, too. A handful of early stage wins and four second places on day two were offset by crashes on both day one and day three.

Eighth victory for Ogier
Ogier and Ingrassia’s victory was their eighth of the 2014 season, and it added to Volkswagen Motorsport’s record number of victories in one year tally – the German outfit scored a total of 12 (out of 13 events) during 2014. With the World Champion* and Manufacturers’* titles already in the bag, the pressure was off Ogier, but he still drove like it mattered.

Ogier and Ingrassia shot ahead into a commanding lead of over a minute on day one of Wales Rally GB and then paced themselves on the following two days, barely putting a foot wrong. The usual deadly mixture of fog and wet, muddy conditions were omnipresent on the 305.64 kilometres of Welsh forest gravel stages, but Ogier almost literally sailed through it all.

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The Volkswagen Polo R-Cup India 2014 moved to the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) over 8-9 November for the three-race third round, and it was at the track in Greater Noida that Lee Keshav Gupta took a double victory on day one of the meeting.

Gupta started in pole position and dominated race 1 right from the off. Gosia Rdest, a Polish guest driver, achieved second place on the podium in race one – her first at the BIC. Chennai’s Karthik Tharani rounded out the podium.

Race two saw 17 year-old guest driver Dylan Pereira from Luxembourg battle it out with Angad Singh Matharoo. Pereira was disqualified, though, after an overly-aggressive manoeuvre, leaving the door open for Gupta to take victory again. Karminder Pal Singh was third.

The third and final race on day two was full of excitement as Polo R-Cup India racers traded paintwork in the first corner. Pereira emerged to take the lead during lap 7, managing to maintain his position until the finish line.

Singh finished close behind, while Tharani was leading until lap 6, when an incident brought out the safety car, relegating him to sixth place. He battled his way back up the field to finish third, while Gupta retired.

The final round of the 2014 championship will again be held at Buddh International Circuit, on 12-14 December.

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.

Zwartkops Raceway was host to the final round of the 2014 Engen Volkswagen Cup on 1 November. The popular South African racing circuit series crowned its 2014 champion at the event, and, at 15, Sheldon van der Linde is the youngest ever.

The youngest national saloon car racing champion in South African history, Van der Linde’s brother Kelvin is also a former Engen Volkswagen Cup title holder.

While Van der Linde won both races at the final meeting (as well as the Rookie of the Year prize), his team-mate Daniel Rowe came third in the championship, securing a Volkswagen Team Award for the 2014 season for Ferodo Racing.

The outfit scored 11 race wins, 13 podium results, 14 pole position starts and 13 fast laps recorded between from 16 race starts.

Van der Linde received R25 000 for his spectacular efforts in 2014, while second placed Dewald Brummer was awarded R15 000, with Rowe benefitting from R10 000 in prize money.

Mathew Hodges claimed on the Masters title for the season, for drivers over the age of 27. Hodges has competed in this series for the past eight years.

Behind Hodges in the Masters category, Trevor Bland was second and Juan Gerber was third, receiving R12 500, R7 500 and R5000 resepectively.

The Most Improved Driver of the Year was awarded to Andrea Bate for her performance, improving from a 19th place finish in 2013 to finishing in seventh spot in 2014.

The Driver of the Day award for the final race day of the year was made to Shaun La Reservée who finished second overall at the Zwartkops event.

RACE RESULTS

Race 1
1 Sheldon van der Linde (16: Ferodo Racing)
2 Mathew Hodges (M3: ITR Africa / 959 Panelbeaters)
3 Tasmin Pepper (31: PG Glass / Suburban Panelbeaters)

Race 2

1 Sheldon van der Linde (16: Ferodo Racing)
2 Shaun La Reservée (7: Alpine Motors / Compendium Insurance)
3 Tasmin Pepper (31: PG Glass / Suburban Panelbeaters)

Overall
1 Sheldon van der Linde (16: Ferodo Racing)
2 Shaun La Reservée (7: Alpine Motors / Compendium Insurance)
3 Mathew Hodges (M3: ITR Africa / 959 Panelbeaters)


MASTERS

Overall
1 Mathew Hodges (M3: ITR Africa / 959 Panelbeaters)
2 Juan Gerber (M8: Haupt Racing)
3 Marius Roberts (M0: Ferodo Racing / VW Motorsport)


CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Sheldon van der Linde (16: Ferodo Racing), 345
2 Dewald Brummer (2: MAD Racing / Grand Prix Models), 307
3 Daniel Rowe (11: Ferodo Racing), 293
4 Tasmin Pepper (31: PG Glass / Suburban Panelbeaters), 274
5 Mathew Hodges (M3: ITR Africa / 959 Panelbeaters), 250

After his disappointing 13th place at Rally France, Sébastien Ogier was once again celebrating at Rally Spain. Taking a double win, the Frenchman celebrated both event and Drivers’ Championship victories with his co-driver Julien Ingrassia.

Once again, the duo clinched the series win before the end of the season, just as in 2013. The defending champions have driven to 7 victories in the 2014 season, with one round – November’s Wales Rally GB – still to go.

It’s a successful story all round, as Volkswagen Motorsport can celebrate its three drivers – Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen are team-mates to Ogier – being the top three drivers in the championship, too.

The 383km Rally Spain (24-26 October) was the eleventh 2014 win for Volkswagen Motorsport and the 23rd of Ogier and Ingrassia’s career. The pair are the only the fourth duo since 1977 to have defended their title successfully and are the eighth twosome to become double world rally champions.

Ogier was more than a little ecstatic: ‘It’s a fantastic feeling to become world champion for a second time! I’m over the moon, it was a real battle to defend the title. In particular, my team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala showed an incredibly strong performance in the last few months.

‘Big thanks to our fantastic team at Volkswagen. Not just for giving us a fantastic car throughout the season. But also for the unique solidarity that we have.

‘It doesn’t matter whether things are going well or badly – the team stands by every driver crew and that is extremely motivating. I’m happy and proud to be part of this team.’

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