The stars of motorsports will begin their test drives in Dusseldorf Germany on Friday in preparation for the 2011 “Race of Champions” on Saturday when things get serious about going after the two titles up for grabs in this year’s event.
The individual event on Sunday is the crowning finale to the cult event, which, with some interruptions, has brought together the world’s best racing drivers from the various motorsports categories for the past 23 years.
It’s no wonder that the reputation of the two organizers, Fredrik Johnsson and Michèle Mouton has attracted a veritable “Who’s Who“ of the motorsports scene. F1 superstar Sebastian Vettel to F1 legends like Michael Schumacher or David Coulthard right up to rally youngster Sebastien Ogier or Tom Kristensen, serial winner of the 24-hour Le-Mans all get together from Dec 2-4 in the Esprit Arena to represent the best and the brightest in motorsport.
It is especially pleasing to see that the drivers’ ambition and motivation has not diminished even at the end of their respective racing seasons. Naturally when it comes to the ‘man against man’ duel in identical cars, it is all about having fun. But even so, when the world’s best climb into their KTM X-BOWs and snap down the visors on their helmets, then it’s definitely ‘race on’!
The X-Bow, a street legal track car which was successfully launched in South Africa at the end of last year, is already tearing up the roads and race tracks in SA. Its quality and competitive nature sees the X-Bow being chosen as a weapon of choice at the ROC 2011 being driven by the best of the best from around the world. The ROC special edition is available to the SA market. Being identical vehicles to the ones used at the ROC, the X-BOW ROC is a desirable collector’s item.
Up to 30,000 fans in the stadium are going to be offered some spectacular action that can sometimes produce some real surprises, like the overall victory of ROC rookie Filipe Albuquerque last year. Meanwhile he is no longer an unknown because this year he was on the podium of the German Touring Car Championship in Valencia.
The Portuguese driver joins the action again in 2011 and this time, and together with other young drivers like rally ace Juho Hänninen, F1 driver Timo Glock or GP2 Champion Romain Grosjean, he wants to give the established motorsports stars a run for their money.
PROVISIONAL LIST OF DRIVERS FOR ROC 2011:
- Michael Schumacher (7 times Formula 1 world champion)
- Sebastian Vettel (2 times F1 world champion and reigning title holder)
- Jenson Button (F1 world champion)
- Andy Priaulx (Touring car world champion)
- Tom Kristensen (7 times Le Mans 24 hours winner)
- Mattias Ekström (2 times German Touring Champion)
- David Coulthard (13 times F1 GP winner)
- Filipe Albuquerque (ROC Champion 2010)
- Travis Pastrana (10 times X-Games champion)
- Brian Deegan (13 times X-Games champion)
- Sébastien Ogier (JWRC world champion)
- Romain Grosjean (GP2 champion)
- Vitaly Petrov (F1 star)
- Timo Glock (F1 star)
- Timo Scheider (2 times German Touring Car champion)
