Tuesday, 22 November 2011

Hanninen and Kopecky set for ROC

Two of rallying's brightest stars are the latest drivers to confirm their participation in the Race Of Champions in Dusseldorf next month.


Finland's Juho Hanninen, who won the Intercontinental Rally Challenge in 2010 and the S-WRC title this year, will partner Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen for Team Nordic in the ROC Nations Cup on December 3.
Hanninen comes in as Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom could not make the team event but he will still try to regain the Champion of Champions crown in Sunday's individual race.
"It's an honour to be competing at the Race Of Champions," said Hanninen. "Finland has an impressive ROC record dating all the way back to Juha Kankkunen who won the first event in 1988.
"I've taken three wins in each of the S-WRC and the IRC this year, but I’m the only Finn in the ROC line-up so far – so no pressure then!
"Hopefully Tom and I have a blend of racing and rally experience that will work well as we try to take the ROC Nations Cup back to our part of the world."
Czech driver Jan Kopecky is the other addition to the event and will team up with Russian Formula 1 star Vitaly Petrov for Team Slavic, the first ever ROC partnership from Eastern Europe.
Kopecky has an incredible IRC record, finishing as the runner-up for the last three years - including a total of six podiums and two victories for Skoda in 2011.
"It's been a strong 2011 for me and this chance to race against the world's best drivers is the perfect way to cap off the year," he said.
"I actually used to race touring cars before I switched to rallies so hopefully that can help me with the quick car changes."
The Race Of Champions is an annual end-of-season competition that brings together the world’s greatest drivers from a variety of motorsport disciplines – including F1, world rally, touring cars, Le Mans and the X-Games – and sees them battle head-to-head in identical machinery on a specially constructed parallel track.
On the day after the Nations Cup some of the drivers then compete in the individual Race Of Champions.
ROC vehicle list:
Audi R8 LMS, Skoda Fabia Super 2000, VW Scirocco Cup, KTM X-Bow, ROC car, RX-150, World Touring Racecar
Drivers confirmed:
Sebastian Vettel, 2010 and 2011 F1 world champion
Michael Schumacher, seven-times F1 champion
Jenson Button, 2009 F1 champion
David Coulthard, winner of 13 F1 grands prix
Andy Priaulx, three-times World Touring Car champion
Tom Kristensen, eight-times Le Mans 24-Hour race winner
Mattias Ekstrom, DTM star and triple ROC 'champion of champions'
Sebastien Ogier, winner of five WRC rallies in 2011
Juho Hanninen, 2011 S-WRC champion
Jan Kopecky, IRC runner-up 2009, 2010 & 2011
Romain Grosjean, 2011 GP2 Series champion
Travis Pastrana, four-times Rally America winner and X-Games legend
Martin Tomczyk, 2011 DTM champion
Vitaly Petrov, F1 driver for Lotus Renault GP
Timo Scheider, 2008 and 2009 DTM champion
Timo Glock, F1 driver for Marussia Virgin Racing
Brian Deegan, 13 X-games medals including Rally Cross gold in 2011

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