Volkswagen Malaysia to Present the Scirocco Cup at 2010 Super GT
In conjunction with the upcoming 2010 Super GT Championship Round 4 at the Sepang International Circuit from 19 – 20 June, Volkswagen Group Malaysia in collaboration with Volkswagen China Motorsport has confirmed the addition of the Scirocco Cup as a support race for the said event.
After the successful racing debut of the VW Scirocco R-Cup at Hockenheim, Germany recently, the series heads to its second round at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, Germany on 4 – 5 June. For round 2, motorsports enthusiasts can expect a colourful mix of 25 entrants on the one hand and innovative push-to-pass system on the other. Push-to-pass enables drivers to boost the charge pressure of the turbocharged Scirocco engine for ten seconds by pushing a button on the steering wheel and to increase the engine’s power output from 165 kW (225 hp) to 37 kW (50 hp), somewhat similar to last season’s F1 KERS technology.
Current Scirocco Cup competitors are all convinced of push-to-pass system. “It’s a great idea,” says Maciek Steinhof, the Polish driver who won the Scirocco R-Cup season opener. He leads the series drivers’ standings going into the race at the EuroSpeedway.
“Tactics play a much bigger role in the races now. And that makes things even more interesting for us as drivers but for the spectators too.” Kris Heidorn from Wunstorf, the overall runner-up and rookie winner at Hockenheim, adds: “You’ve got to carefully consider when to activate the system. You should neither use up this function too early nor use it too late because in that case you’ll run out of laps on which you can use the system. In any event, as a driver, you clearly notice the additional output of 50 hp. The push-to-pass system is really a great invention.”
The number of times the drivers are allowed to use the power boost in practice sessions and race is determined before each race weekend and depends on the track length, track characteristics and number of laps. Tests at the EuroSpeedway showed that ten activations of ten seconds each and a break of at least 20 seconds in between provide plenty of room for tactics and additional overtaking manoeuvres.
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More information of the newest Super GT support race in due time, please visit us from time to time.
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*This story was first published at Motorsportchannel.com on 1/6/2010
