NEWS ARCHIVE

SEAT Sport’s new 1.6 litre turbocharged engine for the 2012 WTCC completed its first run Tuesday at Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo. Test driver and former WTCC race winner Jordi Gené was at the wheel of a SEAT León car, while Lukoil Racing Team’s Gabriele Tarquini could not join the test due to the bad weather conditions that are currently plaguing Italy.

Team Aon will enter the 2012 WTCC with two Global Ford Focus race cars powered by Mountune built 1.6 litre turbo engines and driven by Tom Chilton and James Nash. The team tested with Chilton and Nash for two days in Valencia last week; they will now move on to Guadix and Estoril for two further test sessions.

Young Spanish racer Pepe Oriola will stay with SUNRED Engineering for his second season in the World Touring Car Championship. After collecting some interesting results in his maiden year with the team, including a second position in the FIA European Touring Car Cup, the 17-year-old Oriola will be driving a SEAT León car powered by the new 1.6 litre turbo engine built and homologated by SEAT Sport.

The Chevrolet team returned to Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo for another test session in preparation of the new season. Reigning champion Yvan Muller and vice-champion Rob Huff are sharing driving duties in the two-day test, while their team-mate Alain Menu, who tested in Valencia a few weeks ago, is working with the engineers. The tests take place yesterday and today.

An event at the modern Slovakia Ring on April 29 will replace the WTCC Race of Argentina that was due to happen in Córdoba on 8 July. Close to Bratislava, Slovak Republic’s capital city, the Slovakia Ring was inaugurated in 2009.

Honda’s decision to enter in the WTCC brings a glorious brand back to top level international automobile motor sport with a works programme since the company pulled out of Formula One. In recent years Honda cars have also been very successful in Touring Car racing, winning a number of national titles, three consecutive FIA European Cups (2009, 2010, 2011) and one WTCC race in 2008 (James Thompson at Imola).

Today during a press conference in Tokyo, Honda announced they will join the FIA World Touring Car Championship. Honda CEO Takanobu Ito explained: “We took the decision to enter in the WTCC with the European Civic. We will develop a totally new engine for this project and we are all excited about starting this new challenge.” For this project, Honda formed a joint partnership with Mugen and J.A.S. Motorsport. Mugen will manufacture a 1.6-litre turbo bespoke racing engine developed by Honda R&D.

WTCC regulars Mehdi Bennani and Javier Villa starred on Tuesday in a promotional event in the city of Assa, located in the Moroccan Sahara. Bennani and Villa took part in exhibition races, driving karts and Renault Clio Cup cars during the event that was aiming to promote motor sport in a Country that will host WTCC for the third time on Marrakech’s city circuit later this year.

Lukoil Racing Team driver Aleksey Dudukalo has claimed his first victory of the season in the Russian Ice Racing championship at Ramenskoe’s hippodrome, in the Moscow region. Last Sunday at Ramenskoe, in the championship’s opening event, Dudukalo and his LADA Kalina car dominated the rest of the field, winning all the heats they took part in, and are now leading the point table.