Created in 1988 by former rally driver Michèle Mouton, the only female WRC event winner, and Fredrik Johnsson, the Race of Champions has become the most eagerly-anticipated after party of the motorsport season. This year’s event, run on the 3rd and 4th December, returned to Dusseldorf’s ESPRIT Arena, the venue where relative newcomer Felipe Albuquerque took the overall ‘Champion of Champions’ cup in 2010.

Taking part this year were seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher, the reigning 2011 F1 title-holder Sebastian Vettel and a selection of the biggest names on two and four wheels including, Moto-X rider and rallycross driver Travis Pastrana, 2011 DTM champion Martin Tomczyk, Britain’s Jenson Button and Andy Priaulx, F1 drivers Vitaly Petrov, Timo Glock and Romain Grosjean and of course last year’s RoC Champion of Champions, the Portugese DTM driver Felipe Albuquerque.

Neil Cole interviews the irrepressible Travis Pastrana.

For the first time in ages, multiple WRC champion Sebastien Loeb was absent from the field, but in his place were three rising stars of rallying; Sébastien Ogier (Loeb’s Citroen WRC team mate in 2011), Jan Kopecký (2011 IRC runner-up for Skoda) and Juho Hänninen (Super 2000 WRC champion in 2011).

Naturally, the bookies’ favourite was Sebastian Vettel, the man who could do no wrong in F1 during 2011, clinching his second successive drivers title, but the field was more than adequately blessed with champions, including three F1 world champions, together with champions of DTM, X-Games, WTCC and Le Mans.

If you haven’t already seen the highlights, then I’ll not spoil the surprise by telling you who wins, but you can get up to speed by watching the official review video fronted by well-known TV presenter, Neil Cole.

In fact, that’s the real reason for this post, to draw your attention to Neil’s first column in ROAD magazine, appropriately named “Cole Position”.

Neil has been a familiar face on our TV screens during recent years, presenting the official WRC coverage on DAVE and live interviews at Race of Champion events. This time he provides an exclusive insight for ROAD readers into what it really feels like to muck around off-camera with the finest drivers in the world.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

Neil has an on-camera chat with Michael Schumacher.

Race Of Champions 2011

I am standing in an underground car-park, shoulder to shoulder with Jenson Button, Andy Priaulx and Travis Pastrana – three men at the very top of their individual trees.

We are watching the live TV output of a race… a race taking place about 40 feet and several thousand tonnes of concrete, grass, metal and tarmac above our heads.

The camera cuts to an onboard shot of Tom Kristensen’s face – clearly visible in HD & an open-face helmet – wide-eyed, gurning and snarling as he fights a KTM X-Bow around a tight 1.2km parallel circuit. All four of us burst out laughing at the Le Mans’ legend’s extreme facial expressions.

“TK – you’re an ANIMAL!” says JB. (Initials are the usual abbreviation, just ask DC) and everybody laughs again.

This is the spirit of Race Of Champions. It has the feel of a millionaire’s stag weekend: yes, all the drivers are there to WIN, and to represent their sponsors and charities, but ultimately it is the closest we get to the Good Old Days of Motorsport where gentlemen drivers would walk out of the pub, stub out a cigarette, jump in the cockpit, spit on their hands and RACE.

Read the remainder of Neil’s article in ROAD 22: “Motorsport Monsters”.

Keep up to speed with Neil on Twitter – @neilcole and Facebook.

The headline facts are this – German investors have decided to build an alternative facility to the Nürburgring Nordschliefe, because as demand has increased the existing facilities such as the Nürburgring cannot provide the required track time for automotive engineers, driver training services and manufacturer launch events.

So the grounds of a former British/NATO ammunition depot are the venue of an extraordinary new test and private driving facility with the atmosphere of an automobile country club. The terrain is approximately 84 hectares and is located in the undulating forest landscape in the heart of Germany, 30 kilometres east of Paderborn, near Bad Driburg, in the southern part of the Teutoburger Wald.

Modelled on the likes of the Ascari Resort in Spain, the entire circuit has been designed from scratch by Hermann Tilke, the industry’s most experienced circuit architect. He is best known for renowned F1 circuits such as Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Malaysia, Istanbul, Shanghai and has now turned his hand to creating a New Nürburgring, “The natural ‘Nordschleife flair’ with high safety standards will continue to enthuse every driver. With various ideal lines, the corners allow for approximately identical lap times, while nature itself dictates the unmistakable signature of the test track.”

Walter Röhrl, the legendary rally driver and Porsche development driver has been involved in the project from its conception, “A dream! Here, we have succeeded in returning to the origins of motoring. At Bilster Berg, the unmistakable lay-out of the track is recognisable right away: harmoniously and dynamically, it offers unique opportunities to the drivers and makes them feel the car again. This circuit can take on major natural tracks like the Nordschleife or Spa-Francorchamps.”

Hans-Jürgen von Glasenapp, former managing director of the Hockenheimring GmbH, contributes his entire experience in running a motoring circuit as the managing director.

“The seclusion, the atmosphere, the track – it will be the German Goodwood! The terrain is unbelievable: we will build a track to FIA standards that will meet all safety requirements, to prevent anything happening during tests, development, driving programmes or incentives.”

Location

Bilster Berg Drive Resort is approximately 200 km from Düsseldorf, 150 km from Hannover and 270 km from Frankfurt. The nearest airport is at Paderborn some 35 km away.

Due to its prior military use, Bilster Berg doesn’t yet have a postal address but it’s nearby to Gräflicher Park Hotel & Spa in Bad Driburg.

Prices and availability

The circuit is on schedule to be open by July 2012 and it’s already getting booked up by car manufacturers, but Bilster Berg is also a resort for enthusiasts so they’re formulating several attractive packages that will differentiate it from the Nürburgring.

The company is currently inviting further investors to join the programme with the minimum sum of 100,000 Euros. One of the benefits being offered to shareholders is use of the facility during exclusive shareholder days with various cars and drivers (friends & family) using the facilities simultaneously. The planned circuit usage fee for shareholders is € 2,500 (incl. VAT) which buys approximately 80 days per year and is likely to be fixed for the first five full years of operation.

Garages can be rented in the resort which will provide for all-year-long storage, whilst maintenance support will also be available on-site by experienced motorsport partners (e.g. Heggemann, Raeder, Sautter), both for modern and historic vehicles.

For the time being, it’s not possible to visit the resort individually (unless you are a shareholder), so if like me you don’t have a spare 100,000 Euros kicking around, you’re most likely to experience the Bilster Berg when attending a manufacturer’s launch or driving event.

Can’t wait..

Track Layout

Röhrl’s one-off drive in the 911 SC in the 1981 San Remo Rally, in Italy, is regarded by many enthusiasts as one of the greatest drives in the history of the sport. Röhrl and Geistdörfer were simply not meant to win in their rear wheel-drive 911 SC against the more powerful crop of all-wheel drive cars of the era. On twisty, tricky and slippery roads, the combination were within sight of scoring an against-all-odds victory over Michele Mouton in her Audi Quattro before a broken driveshaft forced retirement.

“That 1981 San Remo rally is one of the most memorable for me, for sure,” said Röhrl, who will be making his third competitive appearance in Targa Tasmania following outings in 1997 and 2000.

Röhrl and Geistdörfer are renowned as one of the world’s top rally driver/co-driver pairings, and together won the 1982 World Rally Championship after previously winning the crown in 1980.

“We were not supposed to be competitive in the San Remo because the stages were very difficult and the all-wheel drive cars had much better grip and more power than our Porsche 911 SC,” added Röhrl. “But we pushed and pushed and pushed … but unfortunately something broke on the car on the final stages when I thought we were going to win the rally.”

“We only entered that 911 SC in one rally, the San Remo. It was a last-minute thing. Some engineers at Porsche helped prepare this car for me because I was without a drive,” recalled Röhrl. “Then more than 25 years later, Porsche informs me this fabulous car has been found in somebody’s garage. It has been restored and now we will bring it to the Targa Tasmania in what will be a very special reunion,” says Röhrl. “I am so looking forward to it.”

Röhrl’s famous 911 SC had not raced for 25 years before it was comprehensively restored by the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, and is one of three cars from the company’s ‘Museum on Wheels’ that will be participating in the Classic section of this year’s event: The other iconic sports cars competing alongside are the famous 908/02 Spyder (1969 Targa Florio winner) driven by Museum on Wheels curator Klaus Bischof, and the 718 RS 60 Spyder (1960 Targa Florio winner) driven by journalist Bernd Ostmann.

The historic trio of Porsche sports cars will be among more than 40 examples of the marque entered in this year’s event, a five-day lap of Tasmania which includes 38 competitive stages totalling over 500 kms.

If you would like to follow the progress of Röhrl/Geistdörfer and their fellow Targa Tasmania competitors, then you can do so on-line via the Porsche Origin website http://origin.porsche.com/uk where there will be daily updates and films reporting all the action from the stages and also taking you behind the scenes.

The features have begun with a short film of Walter and Christian reminiscing about their exploits on the 1981 San Remo Rally with the 911 SC. Next up will be an introduction to the 2011 Targa Tasmania from the official ‘Prologue’ to the event, before the teams and drivers begin winding their way through the north of the island.

This year’s Targa Tasmania will be the 20th anniversary of the famous ‘lap of Tassie’ rally. It starts with a Prologue near Launceston April 5 and finishes in Hobart on April 10.

Gallery

Yesterday’s first qualifying session for the 2010 Nürburgring 24 Hours was red-flagged after just three hours – with thick fog throughout the 25.378-kilometre circuit leaving race organisers with little choice but to take this safety measure. Friday qualifying was therefore tense as teams battled for grid position on what was still a very dirty and slippery Nordschleife.

Pole position for Audi

Marco Werner’s brand new Audi R8 LMS set a time late of 8:24:753 which was two seconds quicker than the old Nordschleife record and more importantly cemented pole for Werner and his team mates Mattias Ekstrom, Oliver Jarvis and reigning DTM champion Timo Scheider. Werner conceded pole didn’t mean much given the length of the race, but was still happy enough with the result.

We are satisfied to be on pole position, even though it isn’t really a very important step for a 24-hour race. At least it was dry today. I was really fighting in the car. My lap was good, I only came across traffic on two or three occasions. That is the key to success for the last few seconds, which is what it was about in the end and led to pole position.

Mattias Ekström (SE), Oliver Jarvis (GB), Timo Scheider (DE) and Marco Werner (DE) will be driving the lead Audi R8 LMS.

BMW set competitive times to secure 8th and 11th

Meanwhile Team BMW Motorsport finished eighth and 11th with their M3 GT2. Uwe Alzen (DE) clocked a time of 8:32.861 minutes in the no. 25 BMW, securing 8th with his team mates Jörg Müller (DE), Augusto Farfus (BR) and Pedro Lamy (PT).

Car number 26 recorded a fastest lap of 8:36.840 minutes to qualify in 11th. Dirk Adorf (DE) will alternate behind the wheel of the BMW M3 GT2 with Dirk Werner (DE), Jörg Müller (DE) and Andy Priaulx (GB).

Porsche unable to match a dominant Audi, but shows that Hybrid power rocks

Meanwhile over in the Porsche camp, Lance David Arnold (Germany) was fastest with the new 480 hp 911 GT3 R clinching the fifth grid position for Haribo Team Manthey. Chris Mamerow (Germany) turned the sixth quickest lap driving the Mamerow team’s 911 GT3 R.

Twenty-four-year-old Lance David Arnold shares the cockpit of the 911 decked out in the gold bear design with two-time winner of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup, Richard Westbrook (Great Britain), former DTM driver Alex Margaritis (Germany) and Christian Menzel (Germany), the reigning champion of the Asian Carrera Cup.

In 9th place for tomorrow’s race will be the Porsche GT3 R Hybrid after an excellent showing in qualifying, only 10 seconds off Werner’s pace up front. The innovative 911 GT3 R Hybrid (Porsche Team Manthey) heads into the 38th edition of the 24 hour race in a strong position. “Our aim was to qualify in the top ten and we did this,” summarised works driver Richard Lietz (Austria). “Under dry conditions we weren’t able to do better due to the weight of our car. In the race we are relying totally on the efficiency of our 911 GT3 R Hybrid.”

Sharing driving duties with the Austrian are Porsche junior Marco Holzer (Germany), works driver Joerg Bergmeister (Germany), and the 22-year-old former Porsche junior Martin Ragginger (Austria). The 480 hp six-cylinder engine is supplemented by two 60 kilowatt electric motors and serves as a rolling test lab under the toughest race conditions to provide Porsche with crucial results for the further development of hybrid technology.

A difficult qualifying session for Lexus

The Lexus LFAs didn’t fare so well in the second qualifying session ending up in 25th and 28th on the grid, although this represented P1 and P2 in the SP8 class. Car 51 hit the guardrail and sustained some light damage, however both cars are fine for the race tomorrow.

Also…

WRC star Jari-Matti Latavala’s Köln Motorsport Ford Focus RS finished a strong 8th in class, with the Finn probably needing to show more restraint with his driving style in tomorrow’s race than he is used to in his day job.

The starting grid at the Nürburgring

Final qualifying results for the N24 are as follows (top 10 cars out of 250 entrants);

1 Ekström/Jarvis/Scheider/Werner (Audi R8 LMS) 8m 24.753s
2 Basseng/Rockenfeller/Stippler/Stuck (Audi R8 LMS) 8m 25.568s
3 Abt/Collard/Luhr/Mies (Audi R8 LMS) 8m 27.967s
4 Biela/Fässler/Hennerici/Kaffer (Audi R8 LMS) 8m 29.250s
5 Arnold/Menzel/Westbrook/Margaritis (Porsche) 8m 29.521s
6 Mamerow/Henzler/Hardt (Porsche) 8m 29.779s
7 Lieb/Bernhard/Dumas/Tiemann (Porsche) 8m 30.323s
8 Müller/Farfus/Alzen/Lamy (BMW) 8m 32.861s
9 Bergmeister/Lietz/Holzer/Ragginger (Porsche) 8m 34.427s
10 Alzen/Schwager/Jäger/Bert (Porsche) 8m 34.906s

The 38th Nurburgring 24 hours will begin at 15:00 local time on Saturday 15th of May and shortly after the chequered flag falls, we’ll bring you the final results here on SkiddMark.

You can follow the race with live-timing available from the ADAC’s website, plus of course their streaming video channel and there will be many people twittering from the race including SkiddMark regular Kevin Mc Glone who you can follow at @GenevaAuto.

TWITTER: Keep track of live pictures from the race by following @GenevaAuto

Since our interview with Dr Mario Theissen back in early February, through to joining the BMW Rahal Letterman team at the Sebring 12Hrs last month, we’ve been keen to witness the return of BMW to top-end endurance racing, with Nürburgring and Le Mans being the two major targets that we know Dr Theissen is eager to achieve success at.

BMW will be contesting their first Nürburgring 24h race since the all-conquering E46 M3 GTR was banned

Meanwhile there are other cars and teams where interesting stories are also unfolding. We have Lexus returning to the ‘ring with the LFA for the first time since it was released as a production car. The Gazoo team are back with a wide-bodied LFA that looks and sounds awesome. The cars will be driven by a mix of Japanese and German drivers, including Toyota master test driver Hiromu Naruse, Akira Ida, Takayuki Kinoshita, Juichi Wakisaka, Armin Hahne, Jochen Krumbach and Andre Lotterer. You can see a few images below, whilst there are plenty more images from today’s free practice on the Pistonspy website.

The Gazoo team return with their awesome Lexus LFA

Aston Martin return to the event for the fifth consecutive year in 2010, but the real interest this time is on their entry of the 4-door Rapide driven by Aston CEO Dr Ulrich Bez, Wolfgang Schuhbauer, Mathew Marsh and Aston’s development engineer Chris Porritt. More photos are available to view on Pistonspy of all the Aston’s taking part in the N24 this year.

Aston Martin have entered the 4-door Rapide which will be driven by CEO Dr Ulrich Bez

Other cars worth keeping an eye out for include the Porsche AG entries, firstly with it’s near-stock 911 GT3 RS driven by former World Rally Champion Walter Röhrl, but also Porsche’s 911 GT3 R Hybrid will be making it’s race debut under the wings of Team Manthey.

Walter Röhrl will be contesting his first N24 since 1993, unfortunately Williams F1 driver Nico Hülkenberg won't be driving but the GT3 R Hybrid will be making its race debut

There is a sizeable contingent of Audi R8s taking part (9 cars when last I counted), led by the factory supported team of Team Abt Sportsline, plus no fewer than 3 BMW Z4 GT3s and a mass of privateer entries making up the 250-car entry list.

There’s even a Ford Focus RS driven by last weekend’s WRC winner Jari-Matti Latvala, so you’re bound to find a car somewhere amongst the grid to support.

You can follow the race with live-timing available from the ADAC’s website, plus of course their streaming video channel and there will be many people twittering from the race including SkiddMark regular Kevin Mc Glone who you can follow at @GenevaAuto.

Since 1993, Röhrl has conducted tests in every standard Porsche vehicle on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. “Right from the word go, the new 911 GT3 RS reminded me of race vehicle,” says Röhrl. “No other road-going 911 has ever been as close to a race car as this current GT3 RS. That’s why I’m thrilled to be able to prove that this sports car is up to the challenge of the 24 hour race.”

The new Porsche 911 GT3 RS is powered by a 450 hp, 3.8-litre, six-cylinder boxer engine. The high-revving unit reaches a specific output of over 118 hp per litre. Developed in the motorsport department at Weissach, the 911 GT3 RS is fitted with a particularly short transmission ratio for racing purposes as a standard feature. The dynamic engine mounts featured as standard contribute to improved driving dynamics. Depending on the driving situation, the mounts change in their stiffness and damping effect, improving the connection between the engine and body when driving under racing conditions. The aerodynamics is consequently designed for downforce – another forte for track racing.

“In the last years, Porsche racing vehicles have performed brilliantly at the 24 hour race on the Nürburgring with their speed and extraordinary reliability,” says Hartmut Kristen, Head of Porsche Motorsport. “Four times straight, it was the Porsche GT3 RSR that was the vehicle to dominate the overall classification. I’m very pleased to see one of our Weissach-developed road-going vehicles competing parallel to the thoroughbred racers and proving its suitability for long distance competition.”

The 38th running of the Nürburgring 24 hour race takes place from 15 to 16 May 2010. Every year, this event attracts far more than 200,000 spectators to the Nordschleife.

“Right from the word go, the new 911 GT3 RS reminded me of a race vehicle,” said Röhrl, “No other road-going 911 has ever been as close to a race car as this current GT3 RS. That’s why I’m thrilled to be able to prove that this sports car is up to the challenge of the 24 hour race.”

The 2010 race will be the first time since 1993 that Röhrl has competed in the N24 event.

“In the last years, Porsche racing vehicles have performed brilliantly at the 24 hour race on the Nurburgring with their speed and extraordinary reliability,” added Hartmut Kristen, Head of Porsche Motorsport. “Four times straight, it was the Porsche GT3 RSR that was the vehicle to dominate the overall classification.”

“I am very pleased to see one of our Weissach-developed road-going vehicles competing parallel to the thoroughbred racers and proving its suitability for long distance competition,” said Kristen.

Last weekend he entered the Costa Brava Rally and won decisively. Based around the Spanish town of Lloret de Mar, Walter competed in the FIA European Rally Championship for Historical Cars together with co-driver Peter Göbel.

The two-times World Rally Champion drove a 1981 Porsche 911 RSR under difficult weather and track conditions, and in so doing Röhrl clearly demonstrated his unique driving skills as the four-times Monte Carlo winner on the last two stages of the race.

The race also featured ex-Renault works driver Jean Ragnotti in an Alpine A110, together with several other competitors driving Porsche 911s plus three Group 4 Lancia Stratos, but it was Röhrl and Göbel in their RSR who dominated the race.

Porsche has unveiled details of the revised Boxster and Cayman line-ups.  In best Porsche tradition the exterior tweaks are minor and hard to spot – essentially new front and rear light clusters – but underneath it’s a more thorough update.

As leaked on DR back in July, the Boxster and Cayman get a new 2.9-litre engine, with power outputs rising to 255bhp for the roadster and 265bhp for the coupe (up 10bhp and 20bhp). The S models’ 3.4-litre flat-six now features direct injection and develops 310bhp and 320bhp respectively (up 15bhp and 25bhp over the old models). Both the 2.9-litre and 3.4-litre cars will be available with Porsche’s 7-speed PDK gearbox, replacing the old torque-converter Tiptronic S system.

In conjunction with improved engine efficiency (particularly in the case of the direct-injection 3.4-litre unit) PDK helps to markedly reduce fuel consumption: The Boxster and Cayman with PDK return 31mpg, the S models 30.1mpg.

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