Five of the world’s most legendary names within Motorsport will line up on the grid when the inaugural round of the 2010 Volkswagen Scirocco R Cup gets underway at Hockenheim this weekend, 24/25 April.
The one make series, which kicks off this weekend at the German track of Hockenheim will feature the names of former World Rally Championship Champion Carlos Sainz, former FIA Formula One World Championship racer and current commentator Martin Brundle, former British Touring Car Championship champion Frank Biela, six time Formula One race winner Jacques Laffite and Five time Le Mans winner Derek Bell.
The Volkswagen Scirocco R Cup supports the German Touring Car series, the DTM. The car which features a 2.0 litre four cylinder TSI engine runs on bio-CNG. This reduces CO2 emissions by eighty per cent compared to conventional engines. The unit develops a peak of two hundred and twenty three PS and two hundred and three lbs ft of torque. There is also an extra thirty PS available to the drivers via a push to pass system. This is to ensure close racing.
The series will be contested over nine rounds during the season, with twenty drivers on the grid for each round. Each of the rounds will feature five guest drivers, who are legends of motorsport.
UK Motorsport fans will get to see the series in action, as the DTM will visit the UK and Brands Hatch on the 3-4 September.
The five legends which will race in the opening rounds of the series have started a combined figure of three hundred and forty three Formula One Grand Prix races, won the Dakar rally, two WRC Titles, the Sportscar World Championship, the DTM and BTCC Crowns and the Le Mans Twenty Four Hour race eleven times.
Sainz, who won the WRC crown in 1990 and 1992 returns to the cockpit of a Scirocco having taken part in the Nurburgring Twenty Four hour endurance race in a VW Scirocco GT24, Current BBC F1 commentator Brundle returns to the wheel of a VW Powered race car for the first time in more than twenty five years, his first racing experience also coming in a VW Powered car.
Brundle’s son, Alex, is racing a VW Powered T-Sport British Formula Three car. Brundle raced in the same Championship en route to Formula One and Sportscars.
Biela, who is claiming home advantage this weekend won the BTCC in 1996, is up against his daughter Isabelle. She has registered to compete in the series, while Frenchman Lafitte returns to Germany with knowledge of the Hockenheim having raced at the German circuit during his Formula One, Formula Two and DTM Career.
The fifth legend racing at Hockenheim is British Sportscar ace Derek Bell, who has won the Le Mans Twenty Four hour race five times, and who entered sixteen grand prix between 1968 and 1974, scoring a single point in the 1970 American Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International, New York.
