The last European race for the 2005 World Touring Car Championship will take place at the “Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo“ in Valencia, Spain. After the Spanish round there will be a seven-week break till the grand finale at the Macau street course in China.
After the previous round in Turkey –where Alain Menu managed a fourth consecutive point-scoring weekend for the Chevrolet Lacetti WTC in the drivers championship– the team didn’t have the luxury of a long break. The cars only got back to the UK on Friday (23rd September), to already leave again three days later. “It will be a hectic few days before we leave for Spain,” Team Manager, Mark Busfield said. “As soon as the cars arrive in the workshops, we will have to repair all the damaged body panels, make sure the whole car is properly aligned and then put in the new engines for Valencia. The FIA has given us a waiver to alter our engines, based on our performances so far this year. This waiver will let us increase the valve diameter to 35mm and the compression ratio to a maximum of 12:1. At the same time the valve lift may be altered up to 12mm, while the tappets are free as long as there height is retained and their diameter doesn’t exceed 34mm. This should allow us to have a three percent power increase”
“Throughout the season we have improved the performance of the chassis and brakes and this final piece of the jigsaw should move the cars up the time sheets, and help identify further which improvements are required to be made during the winter season and carried forward on to the new 2006 race car,” Busfield continued. ”Rob Huff will be the first of the Chevrolet drivers to experience the new power plant on Monday 26th September at Mira proving ground. Alain Menu and Nicola Larini will also be given the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the new phase three engine the following day before the cars are shipped to Spain. So despite Valencia not being “our kind of track” we should be able to qualify within the top ten and go for points. Istanbul wasn’t a “Lacetti-friendly” track either, but lap time-wise we still qualified better than we ever did on previous fast power tracks and in the second race Alain had the opportunity to fight for position and bring home a point.”
“The waiver granted by the FIA is exactly why the interest in the World Touring Car Championship keeps growing,” Chevrolet Europe’s Motorsport Manager, Eric Nève said. “Chevrolet have been working closely with the motorsports governing body to promote their policy of minimising development costs for manufacturers and achieving parity of performance by the most cost effective means. By keeping the playing field level, the organisers give everybody a chance to shine, so that anyone with a so-called “unfair advantage” due to the technical nature of their car can’t run away with the championship. I am therefore grateful to the FIA for sharing our point of view and accepting our requests, as well as for having the vision needed to make this championship the success it will increasingly enjoy.”
Although not visible on the track, Chevrolet introduced another novelty at the Istanbul race. For the first time, an interactive web conference was held for media and fans alike. By accessing a specified website, both media and fans could ask questions to the drivers, who then answered them live and on-camera. 137 people logged in on Friday, a number which increased to over 250 for the Sunday evening conference and asked everything they could possibly want to know. “The initial idea was for Chevrolet to provide an extra service to the media not able to attend the far-away races,” Nève continued, “but telling from the non-media response we had it seems that touring cars are alive and well within the race fan community. After this first success we will repeat the exercise at the Macau race, and at the same time make modifications to make this communications tool even more user-friendly.”
2005 WTCC DRIVERS POINTS STANDINGS (After 16 races)
1. A Priaulx (BMW), 74 points; 2. D Müller (BMW), 73; 3. F Giovanardi (Alfa Romeo), 70; 4. G Tarquini (Alfa Romeo) 55; 5. J Thompson (Alfa Romeo) 51;… 16. A Menu (Chevrolet) 5;… 18. R Huff (Chevrolet), 3;… 20. N Larini (Chevrolet) 2.
2005 WTCC MANUFACTURERS POINTS STANDINGS (After 16 races)
1. BMW 215, points; 2. Alfa Romeo, 200; 3. SEAT, 147; 4. Chevrolet, 54; 5. Ford, 8.
VALENCIA WTCC SCHEDULE (All times local)
Saturday 1st October09.00.09.30 Free Practice 112.35-13.05 Free Practice 215.40-16.10 Qualifying
Sunday 2nd October09.35-09.50 Warm Up15.10-15.35 WTCC Race 1 (13 laps = 52.065 kms)16.15-16.40 WTCC Race 2 (13 laps = 52.065 kms)
The races will be broadcasted live on Eurosport.
