De Villiers to compete in ROC

Giniel de Villiers, four-times South African touring car champion and winner of the 2009 Dakar Rally in South America, has been invited to compete in the prestigious annual Race of Champions, which takes place at the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing on 2-4 November.

De Villiers, who becomes the first South African to compete in the ROC, will partner former Formula One driver David Coulthard in the ROC Nations Cup competition as the All Stars team and he will also participate in the Race of Champions. The Scot, winner of 13
F1 grands prix, was runner up to world rally champion Sebastien Loeb in the 2008 ROC at Wembley Stadium in England.

“I'm delighted to have been invited to this prestigious event,” said De Villiers. “To be competing alongside most of the world's best drivers is going to be a great honour and challenge that I'm sure I will never forget. It's also an event that's run for a great cause (raising funds
for the Institute for Research on Brain and Spinal Cord Disorders) and I'm very happy to be associated with it.”

De Villiers will be up against some of the greats of motorsport, including 2009 F1 World Champion Jenson Button (Team Great Britain), seven-times F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher (Team Germany) and eight-times Le Mans 24 Hours winner Tom Kristensen Team Scandinavia).

Other drivers already confirmed include:

• Red Bull Racing F1 race winner Sebastian Vettel (Team Germany)
• World Rally Championship runner-up Mikko Hirvonen (Team Finland)
• Five-times MotoGP Champion Mick Doohan (Team Australia)
• Triple World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx (Team Great Britain)
• Double DTM Champion and two-time Race of Champions winner Mattias Ekström (Team Scandinavia)
• World Touring Car Champion Yvan Muller (Team France)
• V8 Supercars Champion Jamie Whincup (Team Australia)
• Ten-times X Games Gold Medallist Travis Pastrana (Team USA)
•  Double Formula Drift National Champion Tanner Foust (Team
  USA)

The Race of Champions was first staged at Monthlery in France in 1988 when it was contested by all the world rally champions and won by Finland's Juha Kankkunen. The event, which attracts a huge global television audience, will be made up of three separate competitions – ROC China, the ROC Nations Cup and the Race of Champions itself. Each competition pits drivers against each other in a head-to-head format, with equal equipment ensuring races are won and lost on talent alone.

ROC China on 2 November will decide which drivers represent the host country in The ROC Nations Cup, which takes place the following day. The ROC Nations Cup features drivers paired into teams based on their nationality.

In 2009, a group stage will decide which four teams progress to the semi-finals, when a best-of-three knockout competition will determine who makes it to the final. Last year Team Germany (Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel) beat Team Scandinavia (Tom Kristensen and Mattias Ekström) in the final to win The ROC Nations Cup for a second consecutive year.

In The Race of Champions individual drivers go head-to-head until the champion is decided. In 2009, a group stage will be held to decide the final eight drivers, before the traditional knockout format resumes for the quarter-final.