Giniel de Villiers, four-times South African Touring Car champion and winner of the 2009 Dakar Rally in South America in a Volkswagen Race Touareg, will drive a gas-powered VW Scirocco GT24-CNG in this weekend’s Nurburging 24 Hour in Germany.
VW has entered two of the three bio natural gas-powered Sciroccos that took a 1-2-3 finish in the alternative-power class at the 2010 running of the classic 24-hour race.
The Nurburging 24 Hour is open to touring and GT cars and is run at the historic Nurburgring on a monster 24,5km circuit that combines the old 20,8km Nordschleife (northern loop) road course, which played host to the German Formula One Grand Prix from 1950 to 1976, with the modern-day 4.5km Grand Prix circuit.
De Villiers will join fellow Dakar team mates Nasser Al-Attiyah (winner in 2010) and Carlos Sainz (winner in 2011) and former DTM driver Klaus Niedzwiedz. At the wheel of the second Scirocco GT24-CNG will be VW management board member for technical development Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, former DTM driver Vanina Ickx (daughter of Audi legend Jackie Ickx) and motoring journalists Peter Wyss and Bernd Ostmann.
It will be the South African’s third visit to the famed “Green Hell”, as former F1 World champion Jackie Stewart christened it. Stewart once said: "For a quick lap at the Nurburgring, you've probably experienced more in seven minutes than most people have experienced in all their life in the way of fear, in the way of tension, in the way of animosity towards machinery and to a race track,"
The unique and intimidating Nordschleife twists and turns through the forests in the Eifel mountains around the small west German town of Nurburg and its famous 11th-century castle. It features sweeping curves, variable surfaces, rapidly changing weather, dramatic climbs and drops, and a 1.6km straight where terminal speeds can be reached.
De Villiers first raced there in the Nurburgring 24 Hour in 1994 with fellow South Africans Roddy Turner, Hannes Oosthuizen and Steve Corna in a Group A Opel Kadett when the quartet finished well down the field after mechanical problems. In 2009 he co-drove a VW Scirocco to 15th place overall with Carlos Sainz and Dieter Depping.
In addition to the two Scirocco GT24-CNG gas-powered cars, VW’s factory entry includes three of the spectacular 325kW all-wheel drive Golf24s. These will be driven by, among others, former F1 drivers Johnny Herbert and Mark Blundell.
“I’m really looking forward to returning to the Nurburgring,” said De Villiers from his home in Stellenbosch before flying to Germany. “It’s an awesome experience competing in the 24-hour race. There over 200 cars on the track at the same time and you have to be very careful passing the slower cars, especially at night. The atmosphere is fantastic with more than 200 000 spectators camping in the forests around the circuit and generally having a major party, blowing air horns every time their favourite driver passes.”