NEWS ARCHIVE

Everything is ready at Brno’s Automotodrom for the 13th and 14th rounds of the FIA WTCC that will take place on Sunday. After 12 of the 22 rounds, Chevrolet’s Yvan Muller has built a leading margin of 23 points ahead of the reigning World Champion Gabriele Tarquini, while BMW’s Andy Priaulx lies third, a further 28 points behind.

WTCC regular Michel Nykjær dominated the third and fourth rounds of the FIA European Touring Car Cup that were held last Sunday at the Austrian Salzburgring. The Danish racer, twice a winner of the ETC Cup in 2007 and 2008, won both races at the wheel of the very same SEAT León TDI he drives in the WTCC, beating the Honda Accord cars of pole sitter James Thompson and Tomas Engström.

The 13th and 14th rounds of the FIA WTCC will take place this week in the Czech Republic, at Brno’s Masaryk Circuit. This is a traditional meeting for the championship, as Brno hosted the European Touring Car Championship from 2002 to 2004, and then the World Touring Car Championship from 2006.

The calendars for the 2011 season will be submitted to the FIA World Motor Sport Council on September 10th. Among all the other FIA championships, the WTCC has prepared a draft that includes twelve events. “Most of them are traditional venues for our championship, altough Suzuka will replace Okayama for the Race of Japan,” promoter Marcello Lotti said.

The championship’s winning cars: BMW 320si, SEAT León TDI and Chevrolet Cruze will stay on the maximum 40kg handicap weights at Brno, for the second consecutive event. The compensation weight was determined by the lap times set in Belgium, Portugal and UK. According to this calculation, the SEAT and the Chevrolet equally share the “honour” of being the fastest cars, only two tenths faster than the BMW.

Yvan Muller and Andy Priaulx claimed one victory apiece at Brands Hatch in two extremely close races that also launched Colin Turkington as the rising star in the WTCC heaven. The championship fight is also very close. Muller leads with 199 points and has a margin of 23 over Tarquini, while Priaulx is a further 28 points behind. And Huff cannot be discounted, lying 69 points behind the leader. The championship will resume for rounds 13 and 14 at Brno, Czech Republic, on August 1st.

Chevrolet’s Alain Menu and Independent racer Kristian Poulsen both received a 30-second time penalty for infringements during the first race. Menu for unsporting behaviour, having slowed down in order to win pole position on the reverse grid for Race 2 (he was dropped from 7th to 22nd) and Poulsen for overtaking too early at the end of the safety car period (he was demoted from 15th to 23rd).

Andy PRIAULX – winner Race 2: “It has been a tough weekend as things were really stacked against us. But in the end I am really pleased to have got a win at home. We are really competitive if we don’t have to attack or defend. It’s a brilliant result to be third in the championship and we are heading to a few circuits that will suit us so hopefully we can take the championship fight all the way to Macau."

BMW Team RBM’s Andy Priaulx converted pole position into a race win on home turf at Brands Hatch this afternoon. Independent racer Colin Turkington went one better than in Race 1 to bring his BMW 320si across the line in second to complete a great result for the British drivers in their home race meeting. Reigning champion Gabriele secured the final podium spot for SR-Sport. Norbert Michelisz continued his Rookie Challenge winning streak finishing seventh overall.