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It was business as usual in Sardinia, as Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia scored their fourth victory of the 2014 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), and their 20th WRC win overall. That means Volkswagen remains unbeaten in 2014, increasing its winning run to 10 consecutive victories.

The other Volkswagen Polo R WRC crews also did well: Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila were third, while Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene came home fourth.

Rally Italy was an event of excitement, as fans were treated to duel between Ogier and Latvala. Fighting for stage wins, Polo R WRCs numbers 1 and 2 were embroiled in battles for fractions of seconds, as well as the overall rally lead.

In a regular turn of events, Latvala suffered bad luck when he got a puncture and slipped down the leaderboard to third place.

Volkswagen Motorsport has stressed there is no team orders and its motto is ‘may the best man win’, which played to Latvala’s advantage on the fifth stage. Claiming the lead ahead of Ogier, the Frenchman won stages, matching his team-mate step for step.

With 100km of stages remaining before the rally reached its end, only 12.3 seconds separated the sparring team-mates.

An ecstatic Ogier said: ‘“I am overjoyed! This win was definitely one of the toughest of my career. Right from day one, Julien and I have pushed ourselves to the very limit here on Sardinia. In this heat, and with the extremely slippery conditions on the roads, we had to risk everything to put Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila under pressure.

‘It ultimately paid off, and we won. We may lead the World Championship at the halfway point in the season, but that is no reason to relax: Jari-Matti is on top form at the moment.’

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In a motorsport weekend which saw Polos active in two disciplines, it was a double celebration for Volkswagen over the 7-8 June. While Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia won Rally Italy in Sardinia in their Polo R WRC, US rallycross driver Scott Speed was victorious at X Games 2014 in a Polo RX.

The Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross driver’s win was his second in as many events, as he also took the spoils in round one of the 2014 Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship in Barbados. Speed, a former F1 driver took the title in Austin, Texas ahead of Bucky Lasek and Nelson Piquet Jnr in a Marklund Motorsport-prepared, 7UP-painted 600bhp Polo RX.

‘Our plan A went perfectly,’ said Speed after his win ahead of 18 other Supercars at the Circuit of the Americas. ‘The car was so good today, just makes my job easy,’ he continued.

His team-mate, Top Gear USA presenter Tanner Foust reached the quarterfinals in his ‘Rockstar’-liveried Polo RX, winning two races before rolling the car out of contention. Speed now leads the GRC by 54 points, while Foust is in eleventh place with four points.

‘Once again, I’m super-impressed by how the Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross team has prepared our team cars,’ said Foust. ‘Our Volkswagen Polos are the two best cars on the track.’

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Marklund was the fastest driver on the US track on the Saturday, but suffered a bad start in his quarterfinal after a spin in the first corner. Heikinnen meanwhile suffered a broken driveshaft after contact with another driver. Both will be in action again in Norway this weekend (14-15 June) at World RX of Norway in Hell.

The next round of the Global Rallycross Championship is Volkswagen Rallycross DC on 21 and 22 June 21 at RFK Stadium, close to Volkswagen of America’s Herndon headquarters.

[Images: ESPN Images, Larry Chen]

The Volkswagen Polo R Cup 2014 got off to a thrilling start on 31 May-1 June at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. Singh Matharoo won the opening race ahead of Anshul Manoj Shah and Lee Keshav Gupta – Karminder Pal Singh originally crossed the line in first position but was later given a penalty for having overtaken Shah under yellow flags.

An eventful start saw pole position winner Karthik Tharani Singh colliding with Shah at the beginning of lap one. The red flags were brought out, and although Shah could restart the race, Singh was unable to, due to the amount of damage his Polo TSI racer sustained. Gupta held the lead ahead of Shah, and Karminder Singh moved up into fourth position on lap four.

Shah continued to put pressure on race leader Gupta, and on lap nine made his move. Both cars touched, giving Shah the lead and demoting Gupta to fourth. Karminder Singh took advantage, attacking Shah, taking the lead at the start of lap 10. But his lead was short-lived.

While he crossed the line first, a post-race investigation saw him penalised for overtaking Shah on yellow flags. This resulted in a 30-second penalty, demoting him to 10th place.

Matharoo, meanwhile, who started in ninth position, was thrilled to inherit the victory and take the early lead in the championship. ‘It is not the best way to take the win but after a tough qualifying session I am very happy to win the race.

‘To start ninth on the grid and then win the very first race of the season is an exhilarating feeling. After an average performance in the qualifying, I am delighted to have been able to put in 100 per cent in the race and having won it!’ he commented.

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Thomas, a rally driver as well as a circuit racer, started in pole position, with Matharoo in eighth. Thomas started well, holding onto his lead, even after a safety car incident, with Reddy in second place.

Matharoo worked his way up the field, passing Reddy for second position. Spending five laps ion the tail of Thomas, he couldn’t find a way through, and ended the race on the second step of the podium. Reddy kept up the pace and came home third.

‘I just joined Volkswagen Polo R-Cup to learn. This round has been tough, my fellow drivers have been really good, but starting on pole gave me the advantage,’ he commented after his win.

Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India, was happy to start the season in such an exciting manner. He said: ‘This is a very nice way for me to start here as the new Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India.

‘My team has been excellent since the beginning of the season and have worked hard behind the scenes. Our focus this year has been to invest in drivers and their development. What remains constant though is our endeavour of grooming of young racing talent in India from grass roots level.

‘With the inclusion of a mid-season test drive and a mid-season fitness camp we strive to increase drivers’ development.’

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 2014,

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1 Angad Singh Matharoo, 54
2 Bonnie Thomas, 43
3 Anindith Reddy, 35
4 Anshul Manoj Shah, 34
5 Lee Keshav Gupta, 33

The recent Taman Rally saw Alexey Ignatov and his co-driver Alina Kondratyeva score their third win in as many events in the 2014 Volkswagen Polo Cup Russia calendar. The event saw 11 teams compete in Polo rally cars against the clock. On the first day, Ignatov and Arkadiy Bogomolov fought duels over 81 kilometres and six Special Stages.

However, Bogomolov, who led at the halfway point of the event, skidded off the road on day two to leave the way free for Ignatov. Rounding out the podium’s overall results on the final day was Vadim Leluh who was second, while Vladimir Melnikov finished the event in third place. Both Polo hatchback and saloon (Polo Sedan) versions of Volkswagen’s globally-marketed small car are used in the series.

The second round of the new 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship visited the home of the sport in the UK last weekend. Over 37 rallycross 600bhp Supercars visited Lydden Hill for the World RX of Great Britain round of the series.

Marklund Motorsport Polo RX drivers Toomas ‘Topi’ Heikkinen and Tanner Foust finished fourth and fifth respectively in the exciting Supercar final, while Anton Marklund completed the semi-final in fourth place.

Heikkinen started the final from pole position after going fastest in the semi-final race. The Finn experienced power problems with his Polo, though, and had to settle for fourth place behind Ford Fiesta ST RX driver Andreas Bakkerud, who went on to emerge victorious overall at the 1.4-kilometre long British circuit.

Heikinnen started the final day of the meeting third overall and was fastest in his third heat. In his fourth heat he suffered a puncture on the penultimate lap, which out him in 26th place. But, despite the setbacks, the 23 year-old finished third after the heats and won his semi-final by waiting until the final lap to take his ‘joker’ lap.

‘I had a good start in my semi and my pace was good all the way. Petter Solberg and Andreas Bakkerud made their joker lap in the beginning but I waited until my last lap and kept ahead of them. My start in the final wasn’t perfect and I got stuck behind Robin Larsson’s Audi A1.

‘Then my engine started to lose power for some reason and I finished fourth. It’s obviously not the result I wanted after being fastest in the semi-final. But we are in a good position in the championship and ready for the next round,’ said Heikkinen.

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