If you follow the DTM racing series and Audi to be specific, you may know of the Phoenix Sport team. Christian Abt and Pierre Kaffer ran two Audi A4′s. They also have a pair of wins at the 24hrs of Nürburgring.
A privately entered Race Touareg 2 also contests the 2007 “Dakar” alongside the four factory run cars: The semi-works team, Phoenix Sport, operates under the “Team Lagos” banner.
“Phoenix Sport enters the Race Touareg under its own initiative, however, it is made in close cooperation with Volkswagen Motorsport and especially from the technical point of view”, explains Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen.
The Phoenix Sport squad, established in 1999 and located in Meuspath at the Nürburgring, is particularly well-known through its exploits on the race track in the Super Touring Car Championship and DTM. The team won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in 2000 and 2003 and the prestigious Touring Car Grand Prix in Macau in 1999.
During the 2006 season, the 22 man squad under founder Ernst Moser competed in the DTM with a pair of Audi A4s and was also involved in the FIA GT Championship. Phoenix Sport had its first taste of desert experience in the 2006 Dakar Rally: The team supported the factory Race Touareg of Mark Miller, who was fifth. “That’s why we know that our car is in good hands at Phoenix”, says Kris Nissen.
Team Lagos – Synonym for High-Calibre Sport
“Lagos Premium Sports Events”, a well renowned organiser of Portuguese sporting events, is entrant and lent its name to the new Volkswagen customer team “Team Lagos”. In addition to the “Estoril Open” (ATP Tour) tennis tournament, the “Tour of Portugal” cycle race and golf tournaments and power boot competitions “Lagos Premium Sports Events” also organises the European stages of the Dakar Rally – the start in Lisbon, the first official stages in Portugal and the transport of the participants to Morocco.
The new Volkswagen customer team, established by João Lagos and located in Lisbon, competed in its first rally events in 2006 and now celebrates it “Dakar” debut. The most famous Portuguese cross county rally driver Carlos Sousa flies the flag for “Team Lagos” in a Volkswagen Race Touareg 2.
Carlos Sousa, 2003 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup titleholder, is the local matador on the European “Dakar” stages. For his twelfth start in the Dakar Rally the 40-year old from Lisbon trusts the directions given by experienced German co-driver Andreas Schulz, who won the traditional desert rally in 2001 and 2003.
Technorati Tags: VW, Volkswagen, Touareg, TDI, Dakar, Dakar Rally
Looking for more? Have a look below.
