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24H Nurburgring: Volkswagen update

Good start for Scirocco powered by natural gas and petrol Wolfsburg (23 May 2009). Successful beginning for Volkswagen at the 24-hour race on the Nurburgring: The five Scirocco GT24 cars with natural gas and petrol engines made a good start to the ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:56 PM

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Good start for Scirocco powered by natural gas and petrol

Wolfsburg (23 May 2009). Successful beginning for Volkswagen at the 24-hour race on the Nurburgring: The five Scirocco GT24 cars with natural gas and petrol engines made a good start to the motorsport marathon and are the front runners of their respective classes after four hours of racing. The Scirocco GT24-CNG of Vanina Ickx (B), Peter Terting (D), Klaus Niedzwiedz (D) and Thomas Klenke (D) advanced to 31st place overall, the "sister car" of Volkswagen Executive Board Member for Technology Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, which is powered by natural gas as well, was running in 41st overall at the same time. The Scirocco GT24 of Jimmy Johansson (S), Florian Gruber (D), Nicki Thiim (DK) and Martin Karlhofer (A) took the lead in the two-litre turbo class SP3T and was in 20th place overall after hour hours. Carlos Sainz (E), Dieter Depping (D), Wolfgang Kaufmann (D) and Patrick Simon (D) as well as Altfrid Heger (D), Cheng Congfu (CN), Carlo van Dam (NL) and Franck Mailleux (F) occupied places two and three in class as well 21 and 33 overall.

Keeping fingers crossed first, then cheering VfL Wolfsburg

During the final preparations and in the first hour of the race the crew at the Nurburgring kept their fingers crossed for the team of VfL Wolfsburg for the decision in the German Football Championship - VfL Wolfsburg and Volkswagen Motorsport have maintained an official partnership for years. At 3.10 p.m., Executive Board Member for Technology Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, Carlos Sainz (in the green VfL jersey) and Kris Nissen sent greetings from the starting grid "live" to the Volkswagen Arena in Wolfsburg. At about 5.15 p.m. Dr Hackenberg at the wheel of the Scirocco GT24-CNG received the good news on a pit board and by radio that VfL Wolfsburg is the German Champion.

Kris Nissen, Volkswagen Motorsport Director #"We're seeing a very thrilling race - at the front as well as in the individual classes. The efforts of the organisers to classify the cars in a really well-balanced way have been successful. With us, everything is running according to schedule, thanks to our very well-balanced driver crews and the perfect pit stops, our cars have clearly moved forwards in the overall classification."

#114 - Volkswagen Scirocco GT24-CNG - yellow markings
Bernd Ostmann (D): "The difference between the natural gas and the petrol-powered Scirocco I drove last year is hardly noticeable. Thanks to power steering and the DSG gearbox the car is very easy to drive. You can hardly feel your speed - you only notice it when you overtake more powerful sportscars."

#115 - Volkswagen Scirocco GT24-CNG - black markings
Thomas Klenke (D): "I took over our natural gas Scirocco from Peter Terting and had a stint without any problems. The track was clear almost all the way through, I had no tricky situations. Our car is doing very well, I wouldn't mind if the race continued this way."

#116 - Volkswagen Scirocco GT24 - black markings
Carlo van Dam (NL): "Those were the best 90 minutes I've ever experienced in a race, I still can't help grinning. It's been huge fun passing so many cars with the Scirocco. I've still got a very steep learning curve because I haven't driven so many kilometres on the Nordschleife - but I'm improving step by step."

#117 - Volkswagen Scirocco GT24 - orange markings
Patrick Simon (D): "I haven't had such a relaxed race in the past ten years as I've had to day. After two, three laps I definitely got used to the front-wheel drive Scirocco and after that have maintained a consistently high speed. In the end, I was even able to save fuel without slowing down too much."

#118 - Volkswagen Scirocco GT24 - yellow markings
Florian Gruber (D): "When I left the pits, Carlos Sainz passed me and then we had a nice duel. During an overtaking manoeuvre a Porsche brushed my rear but the damage was not that significant. After passing the A3 that was leading at first, we were again running in front in our class."

-credit: vw

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