PoloDriver

The first round of the South African 2012 Engen Volkswagen Cup almost didn’t get started at all at Zwartkops last weekend (3-4 March). The opening lap of the first race saw the safety car out on the track after a massive accident, with six cars being unable to run once the race had been restarted. Once underway, it was defending champion Devin Robertson who led the rest of the field and took the chequered flag, moving up three places from his fourth-place starting position.

Bryan Morgan in the Franke car came in behind Robertson, while 15 year-old Kelvin van der Linde finished in third. However, a three-place penalty was handed to Robertson after contact with Jordan Pepper’s Polo, so his podium spot was short-lived, with Morgan and van der Linde each moving up a place. There was more joy to come for van der Linde, though, as he clinched victory in race two, and second position overall for the day’s races. Van der Linde was one of two drivers who stayed on the podium at the end of each race. Morgan’s second place in race one was followed by a third in race two – and overall victory for the opening round of the 2012 Engen Volkswagen Cup season.

Brother and sister Jeffrey and Robyn Kruger had reason to celebrate, too, with Robyn taking fourth place in race one, and seventh in race two, putting her in third position overall for the day. Jeffrey meanwhile, took second place in race two, helping to give the pair their best race weekend ever, and a great start for their new sponsor, IndyOil. Normally a magazine journalist for Car, Sudhir Matai started his season well, claiming fourth place in the Masters category, despite spinning his Polo Vivo in the second race. Mark Silverwood and Mandla Madakane both popped their Engen Volkswagen Cup cherries at Zwartkops, bringing their Polo Vivos home ninth and twelfth respectively.

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

RACE RESULTS
Race 1
1 Devin Robertson (1: Big Boss Auto/Sparco)
2 Bryan Morgan (5: Franke)
3 Kelvin van der Linde (31: Ferodo)

Race 2
1 Kelvin van der Linde (31: Ferodo)
2 Jeffrey Kruger (6: IndyOil)
3 Bryan Morgan (5: Franke)

Overall standings
1 Bryan Morgan (5: Franke)
2 Kelvin van der Linde (31: Ferodo)
3 Robyn Kruger (9: IndyOil)

Masters Championship overall standings
1 Justin Taylor (M3: VW Techniques)
2 Dino Manelis (M13: Big Boss Auto/ GTI)
3 Francois van Tonder (M12)

Two S2000 wins into the 2012 World Rally Championship, the Volkswagen Motorsport team faces an extreme challenge later this week on the Rally Mexico, which runs from 8-11 March, over 24 stages and 407km. At altitudes of 2000m, the geographically highest stages this season (2000m above sea level) will push the drivers and cars to their limits. Due to the low oxygen content of the air at these high altitudes, the engines’ outputs drop by around 20 per cent. The familiar pairing of Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia will be joined by Dutchman Kevin Abbring and his new co-driver Frédéric Miclotte.

‘Despite special engine tuning we’ll have less engine power in Mexico than at other rallies,’ said Sébastien Ogier. ‘As drivers, we’ve got to adjust to that. In addition, the high temperatures make it necessary for us to drink a lot so that our concentration won’t suffer during the special stages.’ Abbring meanwhile, clinched S2000 victory in his last Volkswagen Motorsport outing at Rallye Monte Carlo and is competing in the Latin American event for the first time. ‘The gravel stages are good for me, not least due to my experiences in the 2010 French Gravel Championship. I am looking forward to the 54-kilometre spectator stage through the tunnels in Guanajuato on Thursday, with thousands of spectators.’

Last week Volkswagen Motorsport filled the last hole in the Polo R WRC’s rally testing programme, by testing the car in Spain on gravel. The rally challenger has now been driven on all surfaces that feature on the World Rally Championship, and the 700 kilometres driven near Almería in the south of Spain were the last pieces of the puzzle. Now using a custom-built car rather than the ‘0’ development car, the pairing of Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia put the car through its paces.

‘For us, it was mainly about driving this car on as many kilometres as possible on very hard ground. In parallel, we made a few minor changes to the setup in order to pick up speed step by step,’ explained Ogier. Former World Rally champion Carlos Sainz was also on hand to give his opinion, and sat alongside Ogier, taking the wheel before the end of the test session, co-driven by by Timo Gottschalk. Covering twice the distance of a WRC round, there where no problems reported with the car.

‘Around 70% of the WRC consists of gravel tracks, about 20% of asphalt, and roughly 10% of ice and snow. The gravel test served to simulate the roughest WRC sections and to take the car to its load and stress limits. Particularly chassis components such as the hub carriers, dampers and suspension components were successfully tested in the limit range,’ said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen.‘

‘Carlos Sainz – who with two title wins and 26 rally victories is one of the most successful drivers in WRC history – and Sébastien Ogier are working together extremely well – the two are forming a very good combination. They respect each other without any rivalry and are purposefully driving the project forwards. Our next step will be to run further tests on tarmac to complete our specifications book.’

Sainz was equally enthusiastic. ‘During my active days, I drove thousands of test kilometres and hope to be able to support Volkswagen with my experience,’ said the ex-Dakar Rally driver. ‘I have a lot of confidence in the squad and the Polo R WRC will no doubt be a big hit. But we mustn’t forget that 2013 will be the Polo’s first year in WRC, whereas the competition have been active for many years.’

Fresh from its recent class victory at Rally Sweden, Volkswagen Motorsport gave the much-awaited Polo R WRC rally car its first official public outing at the weekend. The ‘reveal’ took place at winter sports resort Ellmau in Austria at Volkswagen’s Winter Night event, with driver Sébastien Ogier piloting the near-300bhp four-wheel drive Polo around the ice and snow-covered track. Carlos Sainz, who has also had a hand in developing Volkswagen’s 2013 rally challenger, appeared in a Race Touareg.

In related Polo R WRC news, wrc.com reports that the first tests of the ‘proper’ car were completed last week. Volkswagen Motorsport ran the car in Norway, with Ogier and Dieter Depping sharing the driving, close to the Rally Sweden stages, where Ogier had competed only a few days earlier. Completing the 1000km test programme with no reported faults, the team focused on transmission and suspension components, and compared the results to the Škoda Fabia S2000 cars, VW currently runs in the 2012 World Rally Championship (WRC). The official WRC website states that the Volkswagen Motorsport testing circus moves to Spain later this week, with the focus on gravel.

[Source: German Car Scene]

All Volkswagen Racing South Africa’s 2012 National Rally Championship hopes rest on the rather broad rear shoulders of the latest Polo S2000 rally car, unveiled to the press at Stellenbosch vineyard yesterday morning. Replacing the Polo Vivo S2000 (and the series four-based Polo S2000 before it), the latest version of the company’s rally challenger, according to Volkswagen Racing South Africa, ‘pushes the boundaries of what has been done previously, and rewrites the rally car rules from the ground up.’

Using some of the most advanced technologies available, the new Polo 6R-based cars are built at Volkswagen’s Uitenhage plant from scratch, and are not deconstructed production vehicles, as was the practice in the past. The S2000 car uses tweaked standard Polo parts (also made locally at Uitenhage), which have been extensively tested to meet the exacting standards of competition at the highest level.

Powered by a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine producing 270bhp/200kW driving all four wheels, the latest Polo S2000 boasts 184lb ft/250Nm of torque at 7200rpm, and makes effective use of a Sadev 4/45 six-speed sequential ‘Powershift’-equipped gearbox. Inside, the interior electronics have new EFI systems and the wiring harnesses are constructed to aircraft specification. Tolerances within the build process are down to 1mm.

Known as the P5R (Volkswagen Polo 5 Rally), the new Polo S2000 is designated PQ250, and is based on the five-door fifth-generation Polo 6R body, unlike the three-door Polo R WRC. Taking the large wheel arches and pumped-up looks from the WRC car, the Polo S2000 does without the oversize rear wing, as it does not comply with S2000 regulations. The rally car is 15mm wider than its road relation, with an 8mm longer wheelbase.

With all these far-reaching changes, drivers now have to undergo specific training to drive the Polo S2000 – it is no longer a turn-key rally machine. And those lucky drivers have also been announced. Long-standing Volkswagen driver pairing Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson will drive one car, with Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries piloting another. Newcomers Hans Weijs Jnr and Bjorn Degandt, will drive the third car in Volkswagen Racing South Africa’s offensive. With an enviable record of six consecutive national rally titles since 2005 in the S2000 class, the VW team has set the standard for all other crews to follow.