PoloDriver

After a close finish, Marklund Motorsport has ended the inaugural season of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in second place, behind Ford Olsbergs MSE. The Marklund Motorsport team were leading the Teams’ Championship going into the competition at the Total Rallycross of Argentina.

The Swedish-run team settled for second, after a three-way battle with the Ford Olsbergs MSE outfit and Team Peugeot-Hansen. Only four points separated the three teams going into the final races at San Luis.

Toomas ‘Topi’ Heikinnen claimed second place in the semi-final number two. The Finn came fifth in the final. Former World Rally Championship driver Petter Solberg took the season’s spoils in the Drivers’ Championship, with Heikinnen second.

Heikinnen’s team-mate Anton Marklund completed the season in sixth place in the Drivers’ Championship, after a varied season which has seen the young Swede up his game quite considerably.

Heikinnen’s Polo RX Supercar suffered gearbox failure at the end of heat two, while he and Marklund were in first and eighth positions after heat three. Hot sun gave way to pouring rain for day two, and Marklund made adjustments to his Polo to enable it to better suit the slippery conditions.

‘We made quite a lot of changes overnight to the car to make it better on the gravel. It was starting to rain quite heavily when I was in the pre-grid area before heat three, other drivers were putting the rain tyres on but I stuck with the slicks.

‘Maybe it was the right choice, maybe the wrong choice, I don’t know really. I pushed as hard as I could and was sixth overall and closed the gap to the lead in the guys above me in the intermediate points,’ said Marklund.

But the mechanical maladies weren’t over for Heikinnen. The Finn’s Polo RX suffered engine failure on the final lap of the final qualifying heat, slowing to a stop just before the last corner. The Marklund Motorsport team changed the engine for one used previously in the season, so didn’t incur any penalties for using a new engine.

Overall, though, the team was pleased with its result. Marklund commented: ‘It’s always disappointing to be second but actually our aim at the start of the year was to finish in the top three so this is something we must all remember.

‘I think we have learned a lot for next year and we will be back and fighting hard. Topi finished second in the drivers’ standings to finish the year with two second places is something our whole team are really happy with.’

The 2015 FIA World Rallycross Championship season gets underway on 24 April 2015 with the first round in Montalegre, Portugal.

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Petter Solberg, 267
2 Toomas Heikkinen, 221

3 Reinis Nitiss, 210

4 Timmy Hansen, 199
5 Andreas Bakkerud, 193
6 Anton Marklund, 173

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Ford Olsbergs MSE, 403
2 Volkswagen Marklund, 394
3 Team Peugeot-Hansen, 351
4 PSRX, 261
5 Monster Energy World RX Team, 76

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 Mexico has recently launched the revised Polo 6C, with first exports of the model coming from Volkswagen India’s Pune factory. While the Mexican Nuevo Polo receives most of the visual refinements the refreshed 6C model brings, it keeps simpler head and tail light graphics, and uses the older style of alloy wheel to keeps costs down.

The range is simpler, too. Only one version is available, fitted with a 103bhp 1.6-litre petrol engine. Five-speed manual or six-speed automatic gearboxes can be chosen, while standard equipment includes 15-inch alloy wheels, ABS, fog lamps, and an FM/CD/MP3/AUX-IN/Bluetooth-compatible radio system.

While appearing similar, the interior of the Mexican Polo 6C does without the new colour touchscreen infotainment systems seen in Europe (instead relying on a monochrome white on black display), and is fitted with a simpler, non-multifunction steering wheel.

The manual version of the Mexican Nuevo Polo is priced at 189,700 pesos. Volkswagen India’s Pune plant also builds the Polo’s saloon sister model – the Vento – for export to Mexico. It is the largest single export market for Volkswagen India.

More details on the Mexican Nuevo Polo can be found here.

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.

> Read More

Volkswagen has announced that the mainland Europe order books for the new Polo TSI BlueMotion are now open. There has been a BlueMotion model in the Polo range since 2008, but it has always been powered by a TDI diesel engine.

The TSI BlueMotion however breaks that template and comes with a new three-cylinder 1.0-litre petrol engine with Volkswagen’s TSI technology. The German company says that the Polo TSI BlueMotion has best-in-class emissions at 94g/km, and also class-beating fuel economy, with the car theoretically capable of 70.6mpg (4.1 l/100km).

The Polo TSI BlueMotion is the first petrol-powered Volkswagen BlueMotion model. Improvements to the engine management system result in the headline-grabbing figures, and the new eco Polo is the first petrol-driven Polo to receive a class A label for energy efficiency.

As with all new Polo models, the TSI BlueMotion meets the strict EU6 emissions standard. The new engine is rated at 88bhp and has a top speed of 118mph. Changes over the regular Polo include a lowered ride height, improved radiator grille and underbody aerodynamics.

As with previous Polo BlueMotions, reduced rolling resistance tyres and longer gear ratios in the upper transmission stages are the mechanical tweaks. A stop/start system, regenerative braking and a gear-change indicator are also part of the eco diet.

As with other new Polos, a range of safety assistance systems are available incuding the standard Automatic Post-Collision Braking System (which automatically initiates braking after a collision) and the optional Driver Alert System, Front Assist ambient traffic monitoring system with City Emergency Braking and Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC).

Prices for the new Polo TSI BlueMotion start at €15,925 for the three-door model. A TDI BlueMotion will also join the TSI BlueMotion, and both models will come to the UK in early 2015. Prices and exact specifications are yet to be announced.