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BMW
Faithful to its tradition of exploiting motor sport programmes to promote its road cars, BMW confirmed its presence in WTCC in which it clinched the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles three consecutive years, from 2005 to 2007.
In order to support the customer teams, in 2012 BMW Motorsport developed a kit to update the 320si cars to 320 TC, including the 1.6-litre turbo engine.
ROAL Motorsport, directed by the 1987 WTCC champion Roberto Ravaglia, run two cars for Dutch race winner Tom Coronel and Darryl O’Young. Liqui Moly Team Engstler confirmed their 2012 duo of Franz Engstler and Charles Ng, and so did Proteam Racing with Mehdi Bennani. Swiss racer Fredy Barth drives for Wiechers-Sport, while WTCC race winner Stefano D’Aste has established his own team PB Motorsport. -
Chevrolet
After launching the Cruze cars in 2009, Chevrolet managed to win back-to-back Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Although the factory programme has been halted after eight seasons, the Chevrolet brand is still represented by four Cruze cars. Former Chevrolet works team Ray Mallock’s RML, one of the most experienced and winning outfits in Touring Car racing, run two of them for three-time World Champion Yvan Muller and former BTCC race winner Tom Chilton. The Chevrolet line-up is completed by two cars run by bamboo-engineering, for the English duo of James Nash and Alex MacDowall and one entered by Swedish outfit Nika Racing. -
Honda
In 2012 the Japanese car maker made its first WTCC appearance with the new Civic 5-door car at the events in Japan, China and Macau. This is Honda’s first works car racing programme since the brand pulled out of Formula One.
Now Honda is in for its first full season campaign, fielding three cars , built and developed by the Italian outfit JAS Motorsport and powered by the 1.6-litre turbo engine designed by Honda R&D.
Two works cars are run by the Honda Racing Team J.A.S for Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro, while a third machine is entered by Zengö Motorsport for 2012 Yokohama Trophy winner Norbert Michelisz -
LADA
Avtovaz, Russia’s first car manufacturer returned to the WTCC after its campaign in 2009.
After taking part in two events in 2012 with a single Granta Sport car driven by WTCC race winner James Thompson, the LADA Sport team field two cars in the 2013 season, one for Thompson and one for Russian driver Aleksei Dudukalo.
The team have secured the precious collaboration of French outfit ORECA for the technical development of the chassis and the 1.6-litre turbo engine. On top of this the programme is supported by Lukoil Racing, Russia’s major oil company. -
SEAT
Although SEAT Sport had officially left the championship after winning back-to-back Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles in 2008 and 2009, the Spanish brand is well represented with León WTCC cars powered by the new 1.6L turbo engine developed by the factory.
Three cars are raced by the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport that joined WTCC after clinching the 2012 FIA GT1 title. The German outfit signed the reigning world champion Rob Huff in addition to René Münnich and 2012 GT1 world champion Marc Basseng.
Other León cars are run by Special Tuning Racing for Tom Boardman, Tuenti Racing for the 18-year-old Pepe Oriola and Campos Racing.
MACDOWALL TOPS A SHORTENED TEST - News
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21 September 2012 23:50 MACDOWALL TOPS A SHORTENED TESTAlex MacDowall set the fastest lap in the first outing for the WTCC drivers at Sonoma. The 30-minute test lasted only 26 minutes before being red flagged when Felice Tedeschi crashed at Turn 4.
Yvan Muller was the first one to time a significant lap of 1:49.891, ten minutes into the session. A few moment later Alain Menu improved to 1:49.373 and then Pepe Oriola moved the mark further ahead to 1:48.609.
With twelve minutes left on the clock MacDowall clocked a lap of 1:48.281 that eventually remained the fastest as the red flag shortened the session by four minutes.
Tedeschi went wide at Turn 4 and his Proteam BMW 320 TC hit the wall and rolled; the Italian newcomer had struggled from the beginning, spinning three times at Turn 2 before the crash. Despite the hard crash, Tedeschi was unscathed.
Fernando Monje set an impressive third fastest lap of 1:48.979, demoting Muller to fourth in the fastest of the Chevrolet cars. While Stefano D’Aste was the best of the BMW drivers, ranking eighth with a lap of 1:49.449. James Nash's Ford was timed at 1:50.270 and classified 14th.
Standings
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1.
MULLER Yvan
165 pt.
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2.
TARQUINI Gabriele
114 pt.
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3.
CHILTON Tom
71 pt.
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3.
HUFF Rob
71 pt.
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5.
NASH James
65 pt.
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6.
CORONEL Tom
64 pt.
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7.
NYKJÆR Michel
61 pt.
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8.
MACDOWALL Alex
55 pt.
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9.
ORIOLA Pepe
49 pt.
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10.
MICHELISZ Norbert
48 pt.
- 1. Honda 341 pt.
- 2. LADA 184 pt.
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1.
NASH James
59 pt.
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2.
MACDOWALL Alex
53 pt.
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3.
NYKJÆR Michel
52 pt.
- 1. RML 92 pt.
- 2. bamboo-engineering 55 pt.
- 3. ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport 46 pt.
