Dakar Rally

It is truly a five-star line-up: Volkswagen will field five Race Touareg vehicles at the 2010 Dakar Rally in Argentina and Chile. The Wolfsburg-based automobile manufacturer has signed the Brazilians Maurício Neves and Clécio Maestrelli as another driver/co-driver team alongside the previously confirmed pairings Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (E/E), Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D), Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA) as well as Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk (Q/D). The “factory” duos unanimously pursue one goal: to repeat the victory achieved in the 2009 Dakar Rally by the first diesel-powered automobile in the history of the tradition-steeped desert rally at the same venue. In January 2009 de Villiers/von ... Read Full Story

Volkswagen will again seek to be the champion at next year’s Dakar Rally and will be entering five Race Touaregs. VW won the rally last year with its Touareg rally concept, which is powered by a 2.5-litre TDI that outputs 276bhp. The car topped the timesheets in 10 of the 13 stages to claim a [...] Read Full Story

Carlos Sainz wins Silk Way Rally! Volkswagen driver Carlos Sainz and his co-driver Lucas Cruz won the inaugural round of the Silk Way Rally through Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. After nine legs and a total of 4,896 kilometers the Spanish pairing in their Volkswagen Race Touareg reached the finish in Ashgabat ahead of their team-mates Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA) and the “Dakar” winners Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D) in places two and three. For the two-time World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz, this marks the fourth victory with Volkswagen, for his navigator Lucas Cruz, it is the second after their joint exploit at the ... Read Full Story

Dakar Rally organizers remain optimistic amid a global economic downturn that has raised doubts about competitor turnout in 2010. "The international context is one of crisis," said Dakar director Etienne Lavigne during the rally's launch on Monday in the Argentine presidential palace. "It's difficult to anticipate what the impact will be on the number of competitors," he added. While tight credit due to the international financial crisis has already forced Mitsubishi out of the race, Lavigne brushed aside rumors that Volkswagen would follow in the Japanese automaker's footsteps. Volkswagen's Giniel de Villiers of South Africa took first place in the 2009 rally and teammate ... Read Full Story

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Saying the key to success was the Race Touareg , Giniel de Villiers led a Volkswagen 1-2 win in the 2009 Dakar Rally. Third place went to Robby Gordon in a Hummer. VW's achievement is the second time a manufacturer has claimed the top two spots in the Dakar Rally. In 1980, Freddy Kotulinksy and Patrick Zaniroli raced their VW Iltis machines to a 1-2 finish overall. The 2009 Dakar Rally will go down in the history books for seeking out new territory in the face of terrorist threats. Organizers skipped Africa this year in favor of racing in South ... Read Full Story