The Marklund Motorsport team and drivers remain contenders for the FIA World Rallycross Championship title following the race hosted in Germany. The best Volkswagen driver on the Estering near Buxtehude was Toomas ‘Topi’ Heikkinen (FIN), who came fifth in his Polo RX Supercar.
This moved Heikkinen up one place in the drivers’ standings, to second place behind Petter Solberg, who celebrated his fourth win of the victory with a minuscule lead of five thousandths of a second over the two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekström (S). The other two Volkswagen drivers, Anton Marklund (S) and Ronny ‘C’Rock’ Wechselberger (D), were unlucky with the onset of rain and were already out of the running in the preliminary heats.
This was the debut in a Volkswagen rallycross Polo for the famous stuntman Wechselberger. 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 world championship calendar will take place in Italy next weekend.
Global Rallycross
Victory for Speed – race debut for the new Beetle
It was a special weekend for Volkswagen of America and Andretti Autosport in Los Angeles, with Scott Speed (USA) scoring a victory in the Polo and with the premiere of the new Volkswagen Beetle GRC. The former Formula 1 driver Speed triumphed for Volkswagen in the Global Rallycross Championship (GRC) on Saturday, the first day of the double event. He then finished in sixth place on the second day. He is therefore currently in third place overall ahead of the penultimate event of the season in Seattle this coming Saturday, and is still in with a good chance of securing the championship title.
Tanner Foust (USA) took to the wheel of the 544 hp Beetle GRC with technology specially developed for rallycross for the first time in Los Angeles. And Foust demonstrated how fast the vehicle is on the first day, by achieving the fastest time in one of the qualifying heats. “We got a great deal of experience in the Beetle on the track and scored a couple of fastest times. I’m now looking forward to the next event in Seattle,” said Foust.