Dakar Series: Three Volkswagen Race Touareg to start in Portugal
By fielding three Race Touareg vehicles, Volkswagen is tackling another new challenge in cross-country rally racing while preparing for the 2009 Dakar Rally: The second rally of the Dakar series, which will lead through Portugal from 09 to 14 September, will be contested by the factory duos of Carlos Sainz/Michel Périn (E/F), Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (RSA/D) and Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk (D/D) with the diesel prototype that has already been victorious twice in 2008.
The rally from Lisbon to Portimão will feature approximately 1,000 timed kilometres on five competition days. In April 2008, the Volkswagen Duo Sainz/Périn had won the first rally of the Dakar series, the Central Europe Rally through Hungary and Romania. The German duo Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk in its first event in the Race Touareg had finished the rally in third place. Seven of the seven possible stage victories went to the Race Touareg powered by a 280-hg TDI diesel engine.
"The first round of the Dakar Series was marked by extremely fierce competition, exemplary organisation and challenging terrain,” says Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. "We’re pleased to accept the challenge of this second new competition run by the ‘Dakar’ organiser ASO, which again promises to deliver first-class cross-country rally racing. What’s more, before the 2009 ‘Dakar’ in South America this rally offers another opportunity to match our capabilities with our main rivals, Mitsubishi and X-Raid BMW, in toughest competitive conditions. We’re looking forward to this comparison because we’ve won four of our five past rallies and want to add another victory to this tally.”
Preparation for the 2009 Dakar Rally in South America
After winning the Central Europe Rally with Sainz/Périn in April and the exploit clinched by Villiers/Zitzewitz at the Rallye dos Sertões in Brazil, the rally in Portugal marks the third competition in the 2008 season for Volkswagen and another step in preparing for the next Dakar Rally, which will lead through Argentina and Chile in January 2009, offering truly new terrain to the contenders.
"The motto, ‘expect the unexpected’, is a crucial aspect of marathon rally racing,” says Kris Nissen. "Drivers, co-drivers, engineers, logisticians and mechanics must adjust to new conditions on a daily basis. Like the Central Europe Rally and particularly the Rallye dos Sertões, the upcoming rally is an acid test for the entire team. In Portugal, under high pressure from our rivals, we will again have to prove that we’re ready for the next ‘Dakar’.”
Volkswagen will field five Race Touareg vehicles in the Central Europe Rally leading through Hungary and Romania from 20 to 26 April.
In addition, Volkswagen in the 2008 season will enter two factory vehicles in the cross-country "Rallye dos Sertoes” in Brazil from 18 to 28 June and intensively prepare for the 2009 Dakar Rally to be run through Argentina and Chile for the first time from 03 to 18 January.
"The Central Europe Rally represents a new challenge in cross-country rally sport, and we look forward to this challenge. We will field four factory vehicles and enter a fifth Race Touareg for the customer team Lagos,” said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. "After the cancellation of the ‘Dakar’ in January our team is extremely motivated to show our strong performance capabilities. The new rally gives us an interesting and demanding platform for this.” After starting in Budapest on 20 April, the rally will be run over a 3,000-kilometre distance through Hungary and Romania and will end at Lake Balaton on 26 April.
Preparation for ASO rally with tests in Hungary
Volkswagen will field the five Race Touareg 2 vehicles originally planned for the 30th running of the Dakar Rally that was cancelled at short notice due to terrorist threat warnings. The four-wheel-drive prototypes powered by 280-hp TDI diesel engines will be driven by the 2007 cross-country world cup winners Carlos Sainz/Michel Périn (Spain/France) as well as by Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (South Africa/Germany), Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/South Africa) and by Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk (Germany/Germany). The cockpit of the Lagos Touareg will be occupied by Carlos Sousa/Andreas Schulz (Portugal/Germany). The preparations for the Central Europe Rally will include tests in Hungary.
The Central Europe Rally will be organised by the ASO, the French organiser of the Dakar Rally. With regard to organisation, safety/security and marketing, the new ASO rally in Hungary and Romania is to be on a par with the standards of the Dakar Rally. Kris Nissen: "We welcome the decision of the ASO to offer the Central Europe Rally as another opportunity to engage in top-calibre cross-country rally sport in addition to the highlight of the season, the traditional Dakar Rally.”
In the 2007 Dakar Rally Volkswagen – having clinched ten of 14 possible stage victories and leading the event for eight days – was the dominant team in the field, but in the overall classification the factory team headed by Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen was not rewarded for its performance.
After 8,000 kilometres factory driver Mark Miller (USA) and his co-driver Ralph Pitchford (South Africa) in the Race Touareg 2, as the make’s best pairing, finished in fourth place overall. Prior to this, a defect on a cam follower in the valve train of the diesel engine, which had never occurred before in countless kilometres of testing and competition, had robbed the German automotive manufacturer that had been successfully defending its lead up to this point of all chances for victory.
On all the competition days and in highly varied terrain the Race Touareg powered by a 285-hp 2.5-litre TDI turbodiesel engine had been proving its strengths: From the first to the eighth stage the Volkswagen drivers were leading the 29th running of the desert classic. In the final analysis, this shows a significant improvement over the prior year when the squad finished with five days of leading the rally and five stage victories. On the ninth stage both of the best-placed Race Touareg prototypes were struck by an identical engine defect that caused them to suffer an unrecoverable set-back: Giniel de Villiers (South Africa), runner-up in last year’s ‘Dakar’, with co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz (Germany), who had been leading with a half-hour advantage up to that point, and Carlos Sainz (Spain) with co-driver Michel Périn (France), who had been running in second place up to the eighth stage.
In the following chase to make up ground the factory team and the drivers gave proof of their unbroken sporting spirit: In a fantastic showing Carlos Sainz – in his second "Dakar” the front runner from the third to the sixth day of the competition and two-time stage winner up to that point – delivered a series of three further stage victories, starting with the twelfth leg. In the end, the Spaniard finished in ninth position overall. Giniel de Villiers, who clinched four stage wins, including two of the three most difficult stages in Mauritania, and was leading the field on the seventh and eighth stages, ultimately improved from 13th to eleventh position.
Carlos Sousa/Andy Schulz
The Portuguese Carlos Sousa and his German co-driver Andy Schulz proved that in a customer-run Race Touareg 2 excellent showings are possible as well. The duo from the Portugese Lagos Team, for whose fielding the German squad of Phoenix Sport headed by Team Director Ernst Moser was responsible, won the first stage, had the overall lead on the rally’s first two days and defended third place up to the sixth stage. On the seventh stage the duo got stuck in the sand but was able to free itself. In the heavy sandstorm, though, the driver and co-driver unfortunately lost sight of each other and a lot of time in the process of looking for one another. Sousa/Schulz finished the rally at the famous Lac Rose in seventh place overall.
The four-time Dakar Rally winner Ari Vatanen from Finland in the fourth Race Touareg, navigated by his Italian co-driver Fabrizia Pons, on the second stage dropped back to 113th place after a driving mistake while passing through water. On the seventh day a fire of the vehicle put a premature end to the duo’s running.
-Volkswagen Motorsports
By fielding three Race Touareg vehicles, Volkswagen is tackling another new challenge in cross-country rally racing while preparing for the 2009 Dakar Rally: The second rally of the Dakar series, which will lead through Portugal from 09 to 14 September, will be contested by the factory duos of Carlos Sainz/Michel Périn (E/F), Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (RSA/D) and Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk (D/D) with the diesel prototype that has already been victorious twice in 2008.
