FIA WTCC NEWSLETTER # 1 – 4 January 2008
TWO MONTHS TO THE OPENING ROUND
The fourth season of the FIA World Touring Car Championship
will get underway in less than two months, on March 2nd in
Brazil, at the Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba.
Only 45 days have passed since the final event of the 2007
season, when BMW Team UK’s, Andy Priaulx, claimed his
third consecutive World Championship at Macau.
For the second time Curitiba will be hosting the championship’s
opening meeting and it will be the third time the FIA WTCC
will visit the 3.7-km Brazilian racetrack. After Jordi Gené
and his SEAT León won the first ever WTCC race in Curitiba
on July 2nd 2006, BMW drivers claimed three consecutive victories:
Andy Priaulx crossed the line first in 2006’s Race 2,
whilst BMW Team Germany team-mates, Jörg Müller
and Augusto Farfus, shared the glory last year taking one
win apiece. Home boy Farfus is also the track record holder
with a qualifying lap of 1:24.761 set on July 1st 2006, when
he snatched pole position for Alfa Romeo.
2008 WTCC OFFICIAL TEST SESSIONS
Four official test sessions for the FIA WTCC competitors have
been organised during the 2008 season by KSO, the championship’s
promoter.
Two two-day test sessions will take place at Valencia and
Oschersleben immediately before the beginning of the European
season, which commences with Valencia on the 18th May. They
will take place after the first two race meetings of the year
in Brazil (Curitiba, 2nd March) and Mexico (Puebla, 6th April).
Two further one-day test sessions will take place in June
at Brno and Monza; the former will be held on the Thursday
of the week of the Czech event. Applications for media accreditation
may be forwarded to the local press officers.
MULLER AND MONTEIRO GO TO AFRICA
Yvan Muller’s and Tiago Monteiro’s African adventure
will start tomorrow with the first stage of the Lisbon-Dakar
Rally, which spans 486 km between Lisbon and Portimão.
The two SEAT Sport team-mates are taking part in the event
at the wheel of identical single-seater SMG buggies, which
are powered by 250bhp 6-cylinder boxer Porsche engines and
run by Philippe Gache’s team.
The Lisbon-Dakar will arrive in Senegal’s capital city
on January 20th after 6000 km of special stages. 2
THOMPSON WINS WEBSITE AWARD
James Thompson was voted WTCC driver of the year
by the visitors of the premier website, www.touringcartimes.com,
which is run by Swedish journalist Johan Meissner.,
Thompson who classified third in the 2007 Drivers’
Championship for the N.technology Alfa Romeo team, received
35% of the votes, beating triple champion Andy Priaulx (27%),
Alain Menu (16%) and Yvan Muller (13%).
However, BMW and RBM-BMW Team UK won the ballots in the Manufacturers’
and Team’s categories. BMW (38%) edged Chevrolet (28%)
and SEAT (25%), while RBM (28%) emerged ahead of N.technology
(24%) and RML-Chevrolet (21%). Pierre-Yves Corthals, Tiago
Monteiro and GR Asia were elected best Independent Driver,
Rookie of the year and best Privateer Team respectively.
THE 2008 FIA WTCC CALENDAR
Round Date Country Venue
1 & 2 2 March BRAZIL Curitiba
3 & 4 06 April MEXICO Puebla Amozoc
5 & 6 18 May SPAIN Valencia
7 & 8 1 June FRANCE Pau
9 & 10 15 June CZECH REPUBLIC Brno
11 & 12 13 July PORTUGAL Estoril
13 & 14 27 July GREAT BRITAIN Brands Hatch
15 & 16 31 August GERMANY Oschersleben
17 & 18 21 September SWEDEN Anderstorp *
19 & 20 5 October ITALY Monza
21 & 22 26 October JAPAN Okayama
23 & 24 16 November CHINA Macau
* subject to the ASN confirmation and the FIA homologation
of the circuit
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