Greetings from Johannesburg, South Africa. Join us as we catch up with two of the city’s rising young soccer stars, Nodia Mukari and Dylan Bufton. Both boys play for McDuling Motors, a Johannesburg based under thirteen side that is more commonly known as Robertsham Football Club. The team recently won the South African leg of the Volkswagen Junior Masters and as a result they will now be representing South Africa in the world finals, to be held in Madrid in May.
When the Football World Cup begins in South Africa in June 2010, many thousands of boys aged between ten and twelve will have already finished competing in their own World Cup. The Volkswagen Junior World Masters is a worldwide tournament series which is held in Brazil, Mexico, the USA, Russia, South Africa and Germany, amongst other countries. In May, the winning teams will compete in a final tournament at the famous Bernabe� Stadium in Madrid.
9000 kilometres across some really rough terrain – that’s the challenge facing the rally drivers taking part in the “Dakar Rally” in January. Two weeks of stress and strain. The head of motor racing in charge of the teams is under enormous pressure too, but in his case it’s not confined to that single fortnight. All year long he has to put together a car drawing on a given budget; a car that will pose a genuine threat to the competition. At the same time he must organise and supervise: the safety of the entire team, the fitness of the drivers and co-drivers, the transportation of the equipment, and so on and so forth. Mhoch4 has accompanied Volkswagen’s head of motor racing Kris Nissen and seen the extent of the demands made on him on the eve of the Dakar Rally.
Toughness and the wilds of nature! Roaring engines and a trip into the unknown in the true sense of the word! The Dakar Rally offers everything to get the heart of an adventurer beating faster. And in a few weeks it's again happening on the South American continent. We show the pressures the drivers must come to terms with in this mega-rally, and how they prepare for them!
Drivers and co-drivers are often going for each others\' throats. Left, right, straight ahead? Or is the map upside down? In the Dakar Rally, arguments and mistakes simply aren\'t allowed to happen. Those who aim to win this race, the toughest in the world of motor sport, are advised to get to know the terrain and route inside out. The co-pilot and navigator is for the speed and success of the team just as important as the pilot. Which is why the VW team dedicates a whole week to give the navigators enough time to prepare for the still completely unknown route with the aid of maps and the internet.
With the famous Dakar Rally, unquestionably the toughest motor race in the world, it's first and foremost all about getting through, for both people and material. And even when we as normal car drivers don't directly profit from the sometimes unbelievable performances of the racing drivers, we at least benefit from the experience gained from the racing cars and their components. Each part, from the smallest screw up to a twin turbo fuel injection system, is subjected to the very toughest of tests during the Dakar Rally. And such components have to supply a maximum of performance – after all, for the teams it's all about winning. At the end of the rally the engineers know a whole lot more, yet again: knowledge invested in the construction of Golf & Co.
Not exactly a dream come true, the conditions in the Dakar Rally awaiting Nasser Al-Attiyah, the driver from Qatar: a whole lot of sand, sweat and grime in the place of champagne and beautiful girls. But despite the hardships, the 38 year-old committed himself to rally sport many years ago. We document one of the most vibrant personalities from the current racing scene.
The terrain is rather unusual for presenting a Dakar Rally team, but three weeks before the rally is due to begin in Argentina, Volkswagen’s racing division has descended on the Austrian village of Flachau. Even the gods relented at the last moment, sending snow from the heavens. Not the best road surface for the participants of the desert rally, which starts on 1 January 2010, to practise on, but certainly ideal for the team presentation. A fantastic atmosphere and plenty of fun are definitely what count for that.
