PoloDriver

It’s done it again. Volkswagen Motorsport has claimed its second World Rally Championship with the fearsome Polo R WRC in as many years*. It’s the fastest Manufacturers’ Championship title victory in 25 years, and was secured by a one-two-three podium at Rally Australia from 12-14 September.

Once again Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia took the spoils with a dominant drive. Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila came home second, while Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene followed behind.

It gets better. With only three rallies remaining in 2014, Ogier/Ingrassia and Latvala/Anttila are the only duos battling it out for the Drivers’ and Co-Drivers’ Championship title. Defending champions Ogier/Ingrassia are currently leading the standings, with a 50-point lead over their team-mates.

The French duo’s win was the 19th victory for the Polo R WRC in only its 23rd outing, while Latvala’s and Anttila’s second place gave the small car its 35th podium since its debut at the 2013 Rally Monte Carlo.

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Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross Polo R driver Scott Speed took victory at the end of the first day of the Red Bull Global Rallycross series when it visited Los Angeles on 20-21 September.

The Supercar driver converted a second-place qualifying position into two heat victories, and along with team-mate Tanner Foust’s heat win, made Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross the only multi-heat winning team in the first half of the doubleheader weekend.

Speed drove the 600bhp Polo RX of Foust for the LA weekend (we wondered why the car had Speed’s usual green 7UP livery with Foust’s yellow ‘Rockstar’ wheel arches) as the Top Gear US presenter debuted his new Beetle GRC at the Port of Los Angeles.

Speed’s win saw him score four points, boosting his championship total. The series’ only multiple Supercar class winner also held off Joni Wiman and Ken Block for the victory.

‘So far this Polo has been quite reliable,’ said Speed. ‘We’ve had no problems so far this weekend, knock on wood. Hopefully that continues for the rest of the races, and for sure that will give us a shot at the championship.’

As the series moves to Seattle, Wiman leads Block for the Supercar class lead, while Speed is 29 points behind.

2014 RED BULL GLOBAL RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

LOS ANGELES (DAY 1): FINAL RESULTS

1 Scott Speed, #77 Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross Polo R
2 Joni Wiman, #31 Olsbergs MSE Ford Fiesta ST
3 Ken Block, #43 Hoonigan Racing Division Ford Fiesta ST
4 Rhys Millen, #67 Hyundai/Rhys Millen Racing Veloster Turbo
5 Patrik Sandell, #18 Olsbergs MSE Ford Fiesta ST

2014 RED BULL GLOBAL RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Joni Wiman, 332
2 Ken Block, 320
3 Nelson Piquet Jnr, 304
4 Scott Speed, 303

5 Sverre Isachsen, 247

2014 RED BULL GLOBAL RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Ford, 841

2 Volkswagen, 481

3 Subaru, 420

4 Hyundai, 236

5 Chevrolet, 5

[Images: Larry Chen]

It was a mixed two days for Marklund Motorsport at the ninth round of the 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship in Germany over the weekend of 20-21 September. The Swedish team fielded three Polo RX Supercars, with regular drivers Anton Marklund and Toomas ‘Topi’ Heikkinen being joined by German Ronny Wechselberger.

Former WRC ace Petter Solberg won the event – his fourth victory of the season – while second place was taken by Mattias Ekström. Heikkinen finished fifth in the Supercar final, moving him up the overall drivers’ leaderboard to sit under Solberg who currently leads the standings.

Marklund and Wechselberger were victims of the ever-changeable and unpredictable wet conditions at the Estering near Buxtehude, both knocked out in the preliminary heats. Wechselberger drove the car that Patrick Carpentier used to make the final at the seventh round of the series in Canada.

Overall, Marklund Motorsport remains in second place in the team standings, trailing the leaders by just ten points. The tenth of the twelve events in the 2014 calendar will take place in Italy at the new Franciacorta RX track in Brescia over 27-28 September.

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Petter Solberg, 212

2 Toomas Heikkinen, 160

3 Reinis Nitiss, 158

4 Andreas Bakkerud, 136

5 Timur Timerzyanov, 128

2014 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP,

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

1 Ford Olsbergs MSE, 294

2 Volkswagen Marklund, 284

3 Team Peugeot-Hansen, 250

4 PSRX, 204
5 Monster Energy World RX Team, 81

Volkswagen Sasolracing’s Hans Weijs Jnr and Björn Degandt rallied their Polo S2000 to fifth place overall at the South African Toyota Dealer Cape Rally on 20 September. An incident on stage one saw the duo hit a pole, costing them almost a minute in time.

They pushed hard for the remainder of the event and won stage 10 as a result.

Weather conditions on the Western Cape event varied between wet and muddy on the Friday to hot and dry on the Saturday, keeping the teams on their toes. The event almost has two distinct halves – mostly tar stages take place on the first day with gravel tracks on day two.

‘We made a few changes in the setup for this rally,’ said a disappointed Weijs Jnr. ‘The event has changed since I first competed here two years ago and the changes did not work for us – that cost us time as well out on the stages. ‘A top five finish is good, but not nearly good enough for us.’

Team-mates Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin finished day one in fifth place overall, less than a minute behind the rally leaders. Zulu praised his and Peskin’s Polo S2000, which performed flawlessly during the first day.

Creating opportunities for them to push their pace during day one to run with the leaders, they had to retire on the second day due to damaged rear suspension.

‘We had a really good car on this rally,’ said Zulu. ‘We worked hard for a good result at this event and I was really happy with our pace.

‘On Saturday morning we were pushing hard, but were slightly off-line over a series of jumps and we damaged our rear suspension in stage six. Unfortunately that ended our rally right there.’

The other Polo of Henk Lategan and Barry White ran consistently during the event, the pair holding their ground against the opponents. Stage 11 saw them eliminated when they too unfortunately hit a pole.

‘The rally was going quite well,’ said Lategan who had to compete while still recovering from a broken hand. ‘Unfortunately in the second-last stage we hit a very slippery patch and by the time I could regain steering we were already too close to the pole to avoid it.’

Other Polo finishers included Paulus Franken and Henry Kohne who took their Manitou Group Polo S1600 R2 to eighth place overall, and Andrew Heine and Robbie Coetzee whose S1600 VW completed the event in 10th place.

The Volkswagen Sasolracing-backed S2000 car of Thilo Himmel and Armand Du Toit came home 12th, while AC Potgieter and Tommy du Toit’s Polo S1600 finished 16th.

The next round of the South African National Rally Championship, the Polokwane Rally, takes place around Polokwane in the Limpopo Province from 17-18 October.

Manitou Group Volkswagen Polo R2 co-driver Henry Kohne reflects on the recent Toyota Cape Dealer Rally, and how Paulus Franken and he achieved the Manitou Group’s best result to date

On the weekend of 19-20 September the Toyota Cape Dealer Rally took place in the Western Cape, South Africa. This was the sixth round of the 2014 South African National Rally Championship and taking place on the home ground of driver Paulus Franken and myself.

We were looking forward to a promising event as we felt confident competing in front of our home crowd.

The rally started on Friday afternoon at Imperial Toyota Cape Gate. The first day consisted of one gravel stage, followed by two asphalt stages at Killarney race track and two spectator stages back at Cape Gate.

On Saturday, the teams tackled gravel stages around the Malmesbury area and finished the event with a final 2km spectator stage and podium ceremony at the beautiful Meerendal estate.

Paulus and I posted consistent stage times and steered our Volkswagen Polo R2 to second in the S1600 class and eighth place overall. This is our best result to date, scoring valuable championship points with only two events remaining in the championship.

Paulus was pleased with our result: ‘Completing an event without any technical problems and with everything running smooth is a great feeling. Myself and my navigator really put a lot of work into our pacenotes and preparations for this event and will look to carry this momentum to the next event.’

That next event will be in Polokwane on 17-18 October 2014.

Thanks to the support we receive from Manitou Group, Volkswagen Motorsport and SASOL Racing. Follow us at: www.facebook.com/Manitougroupsarallyteam

[Image: Sue Vacy-Lyle]