24h Le Mans
Nobody works as hard as Romain Dumas! In addition to representing Porsche at the 24 Hours in LMGTE, participating in the Blancpain Endurance Series Endurance Cup and mastering Rally racing at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, the two-time Le Mans winner has now tried his hand at Rallycross!
Romain Dumas is unstoppable, having already competed in more races since the beginning of the year than imaginable. As of 1 August, he had already clocked 86 days at the wheel of a racing car and 142 days linked to motorsport, but still found the time to take on a new discipline.
A podium finish was not in sight this weekend at the French round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship (known as the WRX) taking place in Lohéac in the Brittany region. But Romain Dumas took the opportunity to drive the Volkswagen Polo RX participant in the championship to have some fun. On his Facebook page, he posted: "New experience!! I never drove [an] RX car before today. I was looking forward to it and I was lucky to finally made it (sic)...and I enjoyed [it]." Will we see more of Dumas in Rallycross?
Romain Dumas has one of the busiest schedules in car racing. The French driver born in Alès (like Stéphane Sarrazin) competes in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup (passing under the checkered flag in 29 of the last 24 Hours of Spa) and the Intercontinental GT Challenge representing Porsche via the Manthey Racing team. He has also done the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring, a few rounds of the Weathertech Sportscar Championship (including the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring with an ORECA 07 LMP2), the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the U.K. and the famous Pikes Peak hill climb where he crushed the existing record at the wheel of his electric Volkswagen I.D R. Dumas also recently participated in the Rallye Deutschland, with his co-driver Denis Giraudet, driving a Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport.
Romain Dumas has made an appearance at Le Mans twice this year. First at the 24 Hours in the LMGTE Pro class in one of the four 911 RSRs fielded by Porsche GT Team along with Timo Bernhard and Sven Müller, failing to cross the finish line after two screws broke at the rear of the car. The two-time winner (2010 and 2016) then returned to take part in the Le Mans Classic in grids 5 (1969 Porsche 908/2) and 6 (1977 Porsche 935).
PHOTOS: Volkswagen and Romain Dumas' Facebook page.
