Volkswagen picks Le Mans winner Dumas for electric Pikes Peak attempt
Volkswagen has picked two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner and factory Porsche GT driver Romain Dumas as the driver for its Pikes Peak electric car project
VW has admitted its entry in the famous American hillclimb this year is designed as the precursor to a future fully-fledged factory motorsport return using electric technology, mostly likely in the World Rallycross Championship.
Frenchman Dumas, who was dropped from Porsche's World Endurance Championship LMP1 line-up at the end of 2016 but remains part of its GT driver stable, has won the Pikes Peak event three times already.
His 2018 assault will mark the first time he runs with full power all the way to the summit of the 4302-metre mountain, having driven internal combustion engines that lose power with altitude on his previous runs.
Volkswagen's aim for the June 24 event is to lower Rhys Millen's current hill record for all-electric cars of 8m57.118s.
"Romain is one of the fastest drivers to have ever entered the Pikes Peak race," said Volkswagen Motorsport director Sven Smeets, explaining the manufacturer's choice of Dumas.
"What's more, he has thousands of kilometres of experience with racing prototypes under his belt.
"This makes him the perfect driver for Volkswagen as it makes its debut with a fully electric racing car."
Dumas added he was looking forward to returning to the event.
"Pikes Peak is a big challenge, because every driver only has one attempt," he said.
"But I have real faith in Volkswagen Motorsport.
"The team is highly motivated and has already shown on many occasions that it is capable of achieving success right away on unfamiliar terrain."
Volkswagen's electric racer is expected to test in late March or early April, and Smeets told Autosport last month the project is progressing well.
"It's not so easy to test for this event, you can only run at Pikes Peak at the official test days in June so otherwise we're going to be using uphill roads and our own test track in Wolfsburg," he said.
The proposed drivetrain for the Pikes Peak car has been running for some time, with Smeets underlining the importance of the project for Volkswagen.
He added: "I can emphasise it is the project for 2018. For the future, we have to do well and prove the concept is working with an eye to the future in the electric world in motorsport."
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