‘Super-pumped’ Scheider predicts overtaking aplenty in Cape Town

In recent years, Timo Scheider has proven his skills on both two wheels and four in Cape Town, and as the FIA World Rallycross Championship prepares to return to the ‘Mother City’ for the first time since 2019 next month (7-8 October), the German is hopeful of another successful weekend.

Scheider has contested all three World RX events to-date at Killarney International Raceway – advancing to the final in two of them. Prior to that, the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport star participated in the Cape Epic multi-stage mountain bike race in 2015 in South Africa’s Western Cape region.

“Cape Epic is the toughest mountain bike race in the world – more than 600km over eight days and 16,000 metres of climbing,” he reflected. “When I did it in 2015, it was one of the biggest challenges of my life, but the next challenge is to come back again in World RX, compete with all the others and beat them!

“I’m super-pumped to return to Cape Town. It’s a city and a track that I love and I’ve always been pretty quick there. It’s definitely one of my season highlights.”

As for what fans can expect, Scheider predicts a double dose of electrifying entertainment around the 1.06km circuit, with no quarter set to be given in a no-holds-barred battle between the quickest drivers in the sport.

“There are several long, sweeping corners around the lap that are wide on entry before tightening up at the apex,” explained the two-time DTM champion, who sits sixth in the current World RX standings after notching up his third career podium in Norway earlier this year.

“You have to position the car to tackle the corner way earlier than usual and start to rotate it super-early, and if your prediction is a little bit off, you might miss the apex and lose time. That creates a lot of potential for making mistakes and therefore for overtaking.

“You need a lot of mental strength in rallycross because the racing is super-intense, especially at the start, when you have to be smart and aggressive at the same time. Andreas Bakkerud used to compare it to MMA fighting but on a racetrack. When the lights go green, there’s no holding back...”