Skip to main content

VW’s Kristoffersson On World RX Podium for First Time this Year

Johan Kristoffersson, racing in his Volkswagen RX Sweden Polo RX earned his first podium of the season at this year’s Canada RX,  the first to take place off European soil.

The Final race took place in the rain, which benefited Kristoffersson, as point leader and pole-sitter Petter Solberg chose dry weather tires. A move that would ultimately cost him the race.

After bogging down off the start, Solberg was passed by nearly the entire field. Kristoffersson, meanwhile, jumped up into the race for the lead. From his position on the outside of the track, though, the Swede was unable to make a move on the first corner for the top spot and had to settle in for a tough race.

After taking his mandatory joker lap earlier than the leaders, Kristoffersson had a clean track to try and race as hard as possible. Race leader Timmy Hansen was out of reach, but second-place Andreas Bakkerud was firmly in the Volkswagen driver’s sights.

When, on the race’s fourth of six laps, Bakkerud finally took his joker, it didn’t look like there would be enough time to maintain his position. Unfortunately for Kristoffersson, though, a less than perfect turn meant that he stayed behind Bakkerud.

Although he hounded the second place driver for the rest of the race, Kristoffersson couldn’t make the pass on the tight Canadian track, and so he ended the race in third place.

886x498_JKR1550

Despite the potential for more points, Kristoffersson was pleased with his result.

“We’ve been so close and finally our hard work has paid off and we are back on the podium – it feels really good to be back here,” Kristoffersson told fiaworldrallycross.com. “ Petter was outstanding in the semi-final and I felt like I couldn’t catch him but then the rain started and our car works so well in the rain.  The first two laps were really good for us and the car worked perfectly.”

Following the Canada RX, Kristoffersson sits in fourth place overall with 129 points, only three points behind Bakkerud (132). Mattias Ekstrom (157) and Petter Solberg (161) meanwhile are in second and first, respectively.

The drivers will be back at in a little less than a month’s time for the Bretagne World RX of France, starting on September 2.

The post VW’s Kristoffersson On World RX Podium for First Time this Year appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2aGDSaz
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Watch: The Story of the Ads that Made VW Big in America

The ads for the original Beetle are almost as famous and well-loved as the Beetle itself. Looking back now it’s easy to forget, though, just how easily things could have wrong. A new short from Dial M Films tracks the history of those early Volkswagen ads that sold America on the people’s car. The story, of course, begins with the visionary agency that made the ads: Doyle Dane Bernach (DDB). As a popular agency for Jewish products, no agency was more aware of the implications of Volkswagen, and no one, it seems, was more skeptical of the brand than DDB. “Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?” from Dial M Films on Vimeo . William Bernbach, though, was adament that the firm take the client, probably as a way of attracting other lucrative automotive clients. Saddled with a client that he didn’t want, art director Helmut Krone says in the film that he originally came up with ads that were all wrong. Krone tried to do what other manufacturers did and was intent on selling the Beetle ...

Watch: The Stig Drives (nearly) Seven Generations of Golf GTI

With Volkswagen announcing “major” updates to the Golf, it seems an appropriate time to look back on what we’ve had so far. And who better to guide us through the rich history of the most popular European car ever made than Ben Collins, the former Stig? Some say he’s never met a GTI he doesn’t love, and that he can’t grow any of his own facial hair. All we know is … Ben Collins is actually a pretty solid presenter. Working his way through seven generations of the GTI (skipping over the Mk6) Collins tells us a little bit about each one and matches each mark to its corresponding facial hair craze. The Mk1 GTI for instance, is light and quick, but can lose traction under hard acceleration (in heavy rain). Despite that, Collins calls the Mk1 a “pure gem.” The Mk4, meanwhile, is a powerful return to form after the perhaps too sensible Mk3. Collins ends in the only way he could, with the Mk7, which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini Countach and is all kinds of wonderful. Watch, ...

Volkswagen Golf GTE Wins Top Honor at the 2015 Business Techies Awards

Golf GTE wins Green category in the 2015 BusinessCar Fleet Technology awards Judges praised the Golf GTE for its performance, ease of use and economy Golf GTE launched earlier this year with plug-in hybrid technology – priced from £33,755 204 PS performance combined with CO 2  emissions of just 39 g/km Volkswagen has added to its growing list of 2015 automotive industry accolades by winning the Green category in the annual BusinessCar Fleet Technology Awards – the Techies. The prestigious title was awarded to Volkswagen for the Golf GTE, an innovative plug-in hybrid that combines sporty dynamics with exceptional fuel economy and low CO 2  emissions. Now in their seventh year, the Techies are judged by both BusinessCar’s experienced editorial panel with help from TRL’s technology expert. The industry’s only technology-specific awards, the BusinessCar Techies reward the use of technology to make business car fleet operations easier, cheaper, cleaner, safer and more straig...