The maiden season of LADA as a WTCC registered manufacturer ended in the worst possible way at Macau, with Kirill Ladygin’s and James Thompson’s cars demolished in two massive crashes on Thursday and Friday. However the Russian team showed consistent progress during the year, especially after the event in Porto, where the new Priora car hit the track and Thompson joined Ladygin and Jaap van Lagen at LADA Sport.

Seven victories and three pole positions were the respectable booty won by the Chevrolet Cruze on its maiden racing season that ended on a high note with Robert Huff’s win in Macau’s Race 1. The Chevrolet team have already announced their driver line up for the next season, that will see 2008 WTCC champion Yvan Muller joining Huff and Alain Menu.

Spain-based SUNRED Engineering clearly emerged as the winner of the Teams’ Trophy. The outfit directed by Joán Orus benefitted mainly from Tom Coronel’s results, but their second driver Tom Boardman also gave a crucial contribution collecting one race victory at Brands Hatch and several podium results. More points came from the one-off guest drivers who alternated at the wheel of the third SEAT León, like Eric Cayrolle who surprisingly won in Pau or the winners of the SEAT Eurocup rounds.

Tom Coronel clinched the Independents’ Trophy for the second time. The Dutchman and his SUNRED petrol-powered SEAT León achieved five race victories, two short of Félix Porteiro’s BMW, but scored points in 23 races out of 24. Even more important were the points he collected thanks to the trophy’s new regulations that award three points for each point scored in the Drivers’ Championship. Coronel collected 45 points in this way, against Porteiro’s 30.

WTCC 2009 Support Races

2nd Generation Bio-Fuel