What Simola Hillclimb Preview
Where Knysna, Western Cape
When 3-5 May 2024
Community South Africa National
Rowe, Mogotsi powerful Polo SupaCups for King of the Hill
Volkswagen Motorsport is locked and loaded for the Simola Hillclimb from 3 – 5 May 2024. The Simola Hillclimb is one of South African Motorsport’s favourite racing weekends.
Former World Rally Champion, Petter Solberg will not be joining the Volkswagen Motorsport team this year however Volkswagen is ready to thrill its fans with an exciting driver lineup and race car.
“We are obviously disappointed that Petter is unable to visit us again in 2024,” Mike Rowe, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport. “We trust that our fans who witnessed Volkswagen Motorsport’s spectacular 2023 Simola display will cherish the memory, while still being thrilled by our 2024 effort. Our team is leaner compared to 2023 we look forward to our factory drivers racing some amazing cars in the King of the Hill.”
Volkswagen Motorsport will kick off with a Classic Friday action as the team engineer Cobus ‘Prof’ Barnard returns for his third stab at that Simola summit aboard his trusty Volkswagen Golf Mk 1 GTi. “This is my third visit to the Simola Hillclimb,” Prof pointed out. “We’ve made changes to the gearing to suit the hill and I hope to be a bit more competitive in my class. Volkswagen has a rich heritage in South African Motorsport spanning over 40 years, so Classic Friday is important to us.”
The main Simola Hillclimb action will be the King of the Hill competition through the weekend. Factory drivers Jonathan Mogotsi and Daniel Rowe will race the superfast, lightweight Volkswagen Motorsport Polo SupaCup machines for 2024. “We raced a pair of 100 kW eGolfs in 2022 and while it was fun, they were not quite the quickest cars on the hill,” Rowe smiled.
Mogotsi went on: “in 2023, we stepped up to Golf Rs with more than double the power, and they made us work last year. Now we simply cannot wait to charge up the hill in our lighter, and even more powerful front-wheel drive SupaPolos with another significant step up in power this weekend. Bring it on.”
“Our Polo WRX car fondly known as ‘Wilma’ must return to Germany soon, but while we will miss her, the Simola Hillclimb is an event not to be missed,” Mike Rowe concluded. “Now we look forward to spoiling our fans with some great giveaways, treating them to our cool Volkswagen Motorsport merchandise shop, and thrilling them as our Volkswagen factory drivers race a couple of competitive cars up the hill.”
Issued on behalf of Volkswagen Motorsport
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