FIA WTCC newsletter 24 - 20 June 2008
TARQUINI STRETCHED POINT LEAD
A record crowd of 59,000 attended the WTCC weekend in Brno
and they were rewarded with two exciting races.
In the first one Alessandro Zanardi converted his pole position
in his third WTCC victory (after Oschersleben in 2005 and
Istanbul in 2006). The Italian was followed by his team-mate
Félix Porteiro who completed the greatest result ever
achieved by Roberto Ravaglia's ROAL Motorsport. Chevrolet's
Alain Menu completed the podium in third position.
The second race was one of the most exciting ever seen in
Touring Car competitions. Lap after lap countless overtaking
moves and clashes thrilled the spectators, until Gabriele
Tarquini's SEAT León TDI and Zanardi's BMW 320si negotiated
the last two turns door-to-door, with the former winning by
inches. Augusto Farfus inherited third place after Robert
Huff's Chevrolet was excluded due to a technical infringement.
After ten of the twenty-two rounds in the WTCC calendar,
Tarquini has been the only driver to score more than one victory.
He has also stretched his championship lead to 15 points ahead
of his team-mate Yvan Muller, while another SEAT Sport man,
Rickard Rydell, is third a further six points adrift. Reigning
world champion Andy Priaulx of BMW Team UK is fourth, 24 points
behind, and the first non-SEAT driver.
In the Manufacturers Championship, SEAT lead with a margin
of 21 points ahead of BMW.
The series will resume at Estoril, Portugal, on July 13th
for rounds 11 and 12.
TEST DAY AT MONZA ON THURSDAY
Nine teams will take part with seventeen cars in next week's
official WTCC test session at Monza's racetrack, on Thursday,
June 26th.
The test is the last one of the four that have been organised
by championship promoter KSO during the current season, after
Valencia, Oschersleben and Brno.
Testing will begin at 9.00 and will go on until 18.00, with
one-hour lunch break from 13.00 to 14.00.
The teams that take part are: BMW Team UK (1 car), BMW Team
Germany (2), BMW Team Italy-Spain (2), Chevrolet (2), SEAT
Sport (5), N.technology Honda (1), Borusan Otomotiv (1), SUNRED
(1), Liqui Moly Team Engstler (2).
THE BRNO TRACK FOR CHARITY
Charity auction cubes cut from of the old racetrack surface
of the Brno circuit raised more than 200,000 CZK (about 8,000
euros) for young patients of the Oncology Ward of the University
Children's Hospital in Brno.
The first charity auction took place as part of the gala opening
of the resurfaced racetrack on 18th May 2008. Five cubes signed
by MotoGP aces Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa,
Jorge Lorenzo and Loris Capirossi were sold for 115,000 CZK.
Seventeen other cubes signed by MotoGP riders and Czech racing
drivers were auctioned on-line for 86,850 CZK.
Last week the WTCC podium finishers - Zanardi, Tarquini, Porteiro,
Menu and Huff - also signed cubes that will be auctioned later
this year.
The money will be mostly spent on new medical equipments.
SLOVENIAN STUDENT WINS CHEVROLET PRIZE
Last Saturday in Brno the 2008 Visual Art 'Young? Creative?
Chevrolet!' competition came to an end with the election of
the best design of a new decoration for the Lacetti race car
among various projects presented by young European students.
The project 'breaks through' by the Slovenian Adi Sumic received
the best appreciations because: ".it shows great freedom
and creativity: this is a unique approach, out of the box;
it embodies the young spirit of the contest."
Second and third prizes went to Rafael Gonçalves and
Ricardo Trindade from Portugal and to Clémence Pineton
de Chambrun from France respectively.
The winner will be invited to Imola, where the livery he has
designed will decorate Alain Menu's racing car, to spend the
WTCC weekend with the Chevrolet team.
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