Giniel de Villiers, four-times South African touring car champion and winner of the 2009 Dakar Rally in South America in a Volkswagen Race Touareg, will drive a gas-powered Volkswagen Scirocco GT24-CNG in this weekend’s Nurburging 24 Hour in Germany.
Volkswagen has entered two of the bio natural gas-powered Sciroccos with which the Wolfsburg-based team celebrated a 1-2-3 finish in the 2010 version of the classic 24-hour race in the class for vehicles with alternative power-trains.
The race, which is open to touring and GT cars, is held at the historic Nurburgring on a monster 24.5-km circuit that combines the old 20.8km Nordschleife (northern loop) road course, which played host to the German Formula One Grand Prix from 1950 to 1976, with the modern-day 4.5km grand prix circuit.
De Villiers will join fellow Dakar team-mates and winners Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar (2010) and Carlos Sainz of Spain (2011) and German former DTM driver Klaus Niedzwiedz. At the wheel of the second Scirocco GT24-CNG will be Volkswagen Management Board Member responsible for technical development Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, former DTM driver Vanina Ickx and motoring journalists Peter Wyss (Automobil Revue) and Bernd Ostmann (auto motor und sport).
It will be the South African’s third visit to the famed “Green Hell”, as former F1 world champion Jackie Stewart christened it. "For a quick lap at the Nürburgring, you've probably experienced more in seven minutes...than most people have experienced in all their life in the way of fear, in the way of tension, in the way of animosity towards machinery and to a race track," Stewart is quoted as saying.
The unique and intimidating Nordschleife twists and turns through the forests in the Eifel mountains around the small west German town of Nurburg and its famous 11th century castle. It features sweeping curves, variable surfaces, rapidly changing weather, dramatic climbs and drops, and a 1.6km straight where terminal speeds can be reached.
De Villiers first raced there in the Nurburgring 24 Hour in 1994 with fellow South Africans Roddy Turner, Hannes Oosthuizen and Steve Corna in a Group A Opel Kadett when the quartet finished well down the field after mechanical problems. In 2009 he co-drove a VW Scirocco to 15th place overall with Carlos Sainz and Dieter Depping.
In addition to the two Scirocco GT24–CNG gas-powered cars, Volkswagen’s factory commitment includes three of the spectacular 324kW four-wheel drive Golf24s. These will be driven by, among others, English former F1 drivers Johnny Herbert and Mark Blundell.
“I’m really looking forward to returning to the Nurburgring,” said De Villiers from his home in Stellenbosch before flying to Germany. “It’s an awesome experience competing in the 24-hour race. There over 200 cars on the track at the same time and you have to be very careful passing the slower cars, especially at night. The atmosphere is fantastic with well over 200 000 spectators camping in the forests around the circuit and generally having a major party, blowing air horns every time their favourite driver passes.”
STORY BY VW
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