PoloDriver

Round six of the 2012 Engen Volkswagen Cup on the 4-5 August saw Shaun La Réservée dominate the weekend, taking both wins at the Phaksia Freeway. His breakthrough event, La Réservée won the first race from the front row of the grid. He was followed across the line by Devin Robertson and Kelvin van der Linde, while his second finish line team mates were Dewald Brummer in second, and Robertson again, one place behind. Brummer had much to celebrate, too, with a fifth place in race one to add to his race two runner-up position, as well as a third place overall.

Van der Linde meanwhile fought with Jordan Pepper during race one, and the pair fought until the finish line, van der Linde just staying in front to hold Pepper back – the gap between the pair was just 0.001 of a second. With 34 identical Polo Vivos on the grid, the action came thick and fast, with the leading pack of drivers jostling very closely for the sought-after points-scoring positions. Defending champion Roberson concentrated on solid finishes – a second and a third place earned him valuable points to close in on 2012 leader van der Linde.

The 2012 Engen Volkswagen Cup series is similar to the other racing Volkswagen Polo Cup single-series championships run in China, Europe and India. Just as in those official Volkswagen series, the South African one-make format highlights new driving talent. In the Engen series, as many as 35 drivers regularly race in technically identical, 2.0-litre 234bhp Volkswagen Polo Vivo racers.

RACE RESULTS
Race 1
1 Shaun la Réservée (14: Alpine Motors/Compendium Insurance)
2 Devin Roberson (1: Big Boss Auto/Sparco)
3 Kelvin van der Linde (31: Ferodo Racing)

Race 2
1 Shaun la Réservée (14: Alpine Motors/Compendium Insurance)
2 Dewald Brummer (8: Horne Hydraulics)
2 Devin Roberson (1: Big Boss Auto/Sparco)

Overall standings
1 Shaun la Réservée (14: Alpine Motors/Compendium Insurance)
2 Devin Robertson (1: Big Boss Auto/Sparco)
3 Dewald Brummer (8: Horne Hydraulics)

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]

Both Ameya Walavalkar and Donovan Vaz took victories during the second Volkswagen Polo R Cup India race weekend at the Kari Motor Speedtrack, Coimbatore on 27-29 July. Pole-sitter Walavalkar won the first race convincingly ahead of Rahil Noorani and Mihir Dharkar. In the second race, winner Vaz led the pack. The remaining podium positions went to Sandeep Kumar and Walavalkar. Volkswagen India Motorsport runs the Polo R Cup India 2012 series in conjunction with JK Tyres. The field of 20 young racers drives identical and centrally prepared 1.4-litre TSI-engined, 178bhp Polo R Cup cars, new to the 2012 series.

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.