PoloDriver

Volkswagen Marklund Polo RX driver Toomas Heikkinen narrowly missed out on the final at the fifth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in Höljes last weekend (5-6 July), the Volkswagen Rallycross of Sweden. The 23-year old took fourth place in the 600bhp Polo RX Supercar in the semi-final. The Finn needed a third place finish to qualify for the final at the 1.2km Swedish circuit.

Team-mate Anton Marklund was also unfortunate at Höljes Motorstadion, missing out on reaching the semi-final by a very narrow margin. One heat victory, two heat second-place finishes and a breakdown caused by suspension and differentials failure was sadly not enough to qualify for the final race as one of the fastest six drivers.

Overall, though, Heikkinen is still in fourth place on 88 points in the championship standings, thanks to his four top 10 heat times, proving that consistent finishes can be just as important as winning races. Marklund is fifth on 64 points. Double DTM Champion Mattias Ekstrom won the event overall in his first outing, taking victory in the newly-developed Audi S1 Supercar.

Local Swedish rallycross stars Ole Christian Veiby and Johan Kristoffersson of Kristoffersson Motorsport also added to the Polo count, by putting their Local Dealer Team Polo RX Supercars through their paces.

The next races in the 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship will be held on 12 and 13 June at the Circuit Jules Tacheny, in Mettet, Belgium. There will be more Volkswagen interest, too: rallycross star Francois Duval will appear in another Marklund Motorsport-prepared Polo RX Supercar.

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Reinis Nitiss, 112
2 Petter Solberg, 103
3 Andreas Bakkerud, 90
4 Toomas Heikkinen, 88
5 Anton Marklund, 64

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Ford Olsbergs MSE, 211
2 Volkswagen Marklund, 152
3 Team Peugeot-Hansen, 123
4 PSRX, 117
5 Monster Energy World RX Team, 45

At the fourth round of the Volkswagen Polo Cup Russia, Mikhail Krivospickiy and Marina Glushkova scored their debut win at the White Nights Rally in Karelia. Ahead of Arkadiy Bogomolov and Vladimir Melnikov, the Russian pair benefitted from a rare driving error made by Alexey Ignatov.

Ignatov led for most of the 124-kilometre Karelia race, and has also won the first three rounds of the season. He lost 17 minutes on the final special stage, as well as the resulting victory. The next round of the Volkswagen Polo Cup Russia will be held in Strugi Krasnye from 11-12 July.

Following a good start to the season, US driver Tanner Foust took his Polo RX Supercar to his first 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship victory at the rain-soaked Finnish round of the series held at Kouvola over 28-29 June.

Battling through the World RX of Finland heats and semi-finals, the Top Gear USA presenter emerged victorious over Ford driver Andreas Bakkerud in the final, taking a lights-to-flag win. Fellow Ford driver Reinis Nitiss came in third.

Foust was pleased with both his performance as well as the Marklund Polo RX Supercar. ‘I’m absolutely delighted,’ beamed the two-time Formula Drift Champion who will also compete at World RX of Canada and Turkey later this year.

‘This is such a challenging track and with rain it is unbelievably difficult. When you’re not at the front it’s murder to see where you’re going as the car is caked in mud from the moment you’re off the line. I have to say the Polo is very, very good. The VW Marklund team have done an excellent job with the car.’

After two heat wins and a second place in the first semi-final behind team-mate Foust, Anton Marklund was due an overall podium place, but the young Swede was unable to keep up with the US driver in the treacherous conditions. He secured a fifth place in the final and more importantly, additional championship points in the process.

Team-mate Topi Heikkinen made it through to the semi-finals but a tussle with Britain’s Liam Doran and Ireland’s Derek Tohill saw all three drivers retire and miss out on a chance in the final.

The third 600bhp all-wheel drive Volkswagen Marklund Polo RX driven by Toomas ‘Topi’ Heikinnen missed out on a place in the final due to a tussle with Liam Doran and Derek Tohill which resulted in all three drivers retiring.

But, with 74 points and in fourth place in the championship, Heikinnen remains the strongest Volkswagen Marklund driver. Anton Marklund is in fifth place with 61 points, while Foust is three places further down the field in eighth with 42 points.

Other Polo rallycross competitor results were a fourth place finish in semi-final one for Ernestas Staponkus in the Super 1600 category, while Touring Car classification driver Patrick Mertens scored a fifth place in the second semi-final.

The fifth race of the season will be the World RX Sweden, held at the Höljes Motorstadion over the weekend of 5-6 July.

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Renis Nitiss, 96

2 Andreas Bakkerud, 82
3 Petter Solberg, 80

4 Toomas Heikinnen, 74

5 Anton Marklund, 61

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Ford Olsbergs MSE, 178

2 Volkswagen Marklund, 135

3 Team Peugeot-Hansen, 96
4 PSRX, 92
5 Monster Energy World RX Team, 33

In a now-familiar scenario, Volkswagen Motorsport came out on top once more at Rally Poland last weekend (26-29 June). World Rally Champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia scored the 17th victory for the Polo R WRC, out of the 20 rallies in which it has competed.

It was a Volkswagen 1-2, as Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene finished second at the event in Eastern Europe. Team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila put in a storming catch-up drive to complete the event in fifth place.

The Polish win was the 21st for Ogier and Ingrassia and the Frenchmen now have a 50-point lead ahead of team-mates Latvala and Anttila. It’s a Volkswagen 1-2-3 in the Drivers’ Championship, as Mikkelsen and Fløene sit under Latvala and Anttila. The first non-Volkswagen driver is Citroën’s Mads Østberg in fourth place.

The 315bhp, four-wheel drive Polo R WRC now has 30 podium positions under its tyres from 20 events. It was the first time the Volkswagen Motorsport team had lined up for Rally Poland, the seventh event of the 2014 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar.

As usual, Ogier stormed through the fifth gravel rally of 2014, with a pace of 73mph over the 304.21km-long event. With the lead constantly alternating between him and Mikkelsen over the opening stages, the Frenchman was put under real pressure by the young Norwegian and had to put pedal to the metal to stay ahead.

Mikkelsen really was on fire, clocking up an average pace of 84mph over the 12.89km of the Wieliczki 2 stage – he went at full pelt for 80.21 per cent of this stage, setting a new fastest time record in the process.

> Read More

It was a points-scoring weekend rather than a victorious one for Toomas ‘Topi’ Heikinnen and Anton Marklund at the 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship in Norway, over 14-15 June. The Marklund Motorsport drivers just missed out on places in the Supercar final in Hell, but did add valuable points to their championship standings.

Both young drivers and their 600bhp Polo RXs finished fourth in their respective semi-finals in Norway, where a third place would have guaranteed a position in the final stage of the competition.

Instead championship-boosting points were the order of the weekend. Heikinnen currently lies third in the Driver’s Championship with 60 points. Marklund lies sixth, with 39 points. Overall leader is Latvian Reinis Nittis with 72 points, who also took victory in Hell.

Other Polo results included a fourth place in one of the Super 1600 semi-finals for Ernestas Staponkus, while Patrick Mertens suffered a non-start in the line-up for the fourth heat of the Touring Car classification.

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Renis Nitiss, 72

2 Petter Solberg, 69

3 Toomas Heikinnen, 60

4 Andreas Bakkerud, 56
5 Timur Timerzyanov, 41

6 Anton Marklund, 39

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Ford Olsbergs MSE, 128

2 Marklund Motorsport supported by Volkswagen, 99

3 PSRX, 78