Audi gave several established athletes the chance to sample the EKSRX Audi S1 Quattro Supercars at the famous Hahnenkamm weekend at Kitzbühel in Austria by starting a new discipline that pitted four skiing aces against four professional athletes using the team’s WorldRX Supercars.
Called the “Audi Quattro #SuperQ” the event saw all of the athletes and sporting personalities form four teams of two and get the chance to pilot each of the two Audi S1 Quattro around a specifically built course of snow and ice, as well as being instructed by Team Principal and DTM star Matthias Ekstrom and also by 2014 EKSRX driver Edward Sandstrom. Audi also provided two 367-hp Audi RS 3 Sportback vehicles to use during the event.
Ekstrom expressed how impressed he was as he took each one of the stars around in the cars to tutor them and prepare them for the competition: “I was surprised to see how quickly these guys learned and the high level they drove on. However, sitting next to them in the passenger’s seat accelerated my heart rate pretty much.”
In the Final of the competition, the duo of current Slalom World Cup leader Henrik Kristoffersen and MotoGP Star Andrea Dovizioso triumphed over the second pair in the Final, Slalom star Felix Neureuther and Enduro rider Tadeusz Błażusiak. During the Skiing section of the Final, Neureuther beat Kristoffersen whilst in Dovizioso was victorious over Błażusiak in the Motorsport section. The Skiers were passengers during the Audi shootout and Kristoffersen expressed his surprise in the vehicles: “That was scary,” said Kristoffersen. “Andrea accelerated when I’d have long started braking. All in all, it was a tremendous day that was huge fun. Driving such a car was an impressive experience. And it’s my first victory in Kitzbühel – maybe I’ll be able to repeat it in the slalom on Sunday.”
Neureuther expressed his enthusiasm for the S1 Quattro’s after beating rival Marcel Hirscher in the Semi Finals: “I already had the opportunity to try out the S1 here last year,” said the German. “But racing each other in such cars is awesome – especially on a track where you can go flat-out. It was an incredible experience that I’m very thankful for to Mattias Ekstrom and Audi. I hope there’ll be a SuperQ every year from now on!”
The SuperQ knockout system meant that Marcel Hirscher and Ted Ligety, freestyler Jon Olsson and street trial pro Danny MacAskill were all knocked out during the semi-final stages. In spite of this, they all were obviously equally thrilled about this new discipline. “I could do that every day,” said Jon Olsson.
