CHEVROLET HEADS TO MEXICO AFTER INTENSIVE TESTS
Menu, Larini And Huff To Race In Argentina In October
The 2006 World Touring Car Championship will start the second half of the season in Puebla, Mexico, next weekend. After a first fly-away race in Brazil, the race at the Puebla-Amozoc track marks the second of four “overseas” races. And the team seems to like racing in South America, as all three WTCC drivers will help Chevrolet Argentina in their title bid in the national TC2000 touring car Championship later on this year.
“Jorge Maiquez, my Argentine counterpart, visited us while we were in Brazil for the previous WTCC race,” Chevrolet Europe’s Motorsports Manager, Eric Nève, explained.
“The Argentine championship traditionally runs short races, but at the end of October they have a 200-kilometre race in Buenos Aires in which a second driver joins the regulars. At some point we started talking about how it would be good to have all three WTCC drivers join their regular teams as “hired hands” and that was it. Alain Menu has done it several times before, so he didn’t need to be convinced at all, and both Nicola and Rob were quite keen as well. I’m sure it helps the TC2000 series as well as Chevrolet’s marketing and communications efforts to have three World Championship drivers appear in a national series. It also shows that at Chevrolet we believe in helping each other where we can, even if it is on the other side of the planet.”
“Motor racing is extremely popular in Argentina,” said Jorge Maiquez of GM Argentina’s motorsports division, “and race fans have been very fond of touring car racing since decades. Even Fangio started his career in touring cars. The main race of the season, which takes place in Buenos Aires (at the Autódromo Óscar Gálvez in the Almirante Brown Park) is a classic event. It takes place in the capital, is often decisive for the title, is run in a double format – 200 kilometres with two drivers sharing the wheel – and attracts a huge crowd, 70,000 people last year. It is also a very important PR tool, with many VIPs being invited by manufacturers and sponsors. For Chevrolet, the TC2000 is one of the main channels of communication and it leverages on the great passion for racing existing in the country.”
“We are very happy and very proud of having the possibility to have the three Chevrolet WTCC drivers with us at that event,” Maiquez continued. “It is a good example of cooperation between our two programmes and I hope this can lead to other projects in the future. At Curitiba, five people from our team, including the technical director and two engineers, spent the whole week-end with the Chevrolet WTCC team. It was a tremendously useful experience, which went beyond our expectations. We could see how the Chevrolet team works, the high level of professionalism of RML, and shared many interesting insights with our colleagues. It was very helpful to see how such a team is managed, how the work of engineers and mechanics is organized and see all the procedures in place.”
Alain Menu already ran twice in the Buenos Aires 200 Kilometres, finishing second in 2004 and third in 2005. “It’s a superb event,” he said. “Great atmosphere with full grand stands and overall friendly people. Their cars are a bit similar to what we run in the WTCC, although they have more aerodynamic grip. Nic and Rob shouldn’t have any problems adapting to racing Argentine style!”
And Menu is quietly confident of scoring some more points in Puebla as well. “The new track lay-out should suit us better since they’ve gotten rid of one of the slow corners. We will have the benefit of running without success ballast, although I still have to carry five kilos. I think we should qualify quite well there, and be able to finish in the top eight in the first race. Depending on the outcome of race one, we could surprise a few people in race two.”
Rob Huff did not need to be asked to go to Argentina in October, as he will try anything with wheels and an engine. “It is of course very nice to be asked to do this race. It will only be my second ever endurance race after last year’s Spa 12 Hours. The TC2000 cars are apparently comparable to ours, with comparable engines and also front wheel drive. They run bigger tyres and are a bit beefier on the aerodynamics side, but other than that I’m sure we should feel right at home.”
Like the rest of the team, Huff is equally keen to go to Mexico. “The revised track will be a lot safer even though it hasn’t changed that much. It is now a bit longer (3.36kms instead of 3.13kms), but it was already a good track for our car last year, so with what we’ve learned over the past 12 months I think we should be good there. I also spent two days testing in Rockingham to find some better qualifying performance. The car’s competitive in race trim but for some reason we struggle in qualifying when you need that one quick lap. By going to Rockingham we also had the unique opportunity to test on a banked circuit, just what we needed to prepare for Puebla as the revised track lay-out now incorporates both banked turns.”
Like Huff, Nicola Larini also spent a few days testing in Pembrey. “The purpose of the tests in Pembrey was to optimize tyre efficiency and to correct the tendency to understeer the car has.From the second day onwards we could in perfect conditions, and both in a qualifying and race configurations. There will be more testing this summer and it is very important to carry on with this development work, as we are still only halfway in the season.”
PUEBLA WTCC SCHEDULE (All times local = CEST minus 7 hours)
Friday July 28th14.30-15.00 (21.30-22.00 CEST) TestingSaturday July 29th09.00-09.30 (16.00-16.30 CEST) Free Practice 111.30-12.00 (18.30-19.00 CEST) Free Practice 214.30-15.00 (21.30-22.00 CEST) QualifyingSunday July 30th09.30-09.45 (16.30-16.45 CEST) Warm Up13.05-13.30 (20.05-20.30 CEST) WTCC Race 1 (15 laps = 50.400 km)14.15-14.40 (21.15-21.40 CEST) WTCC Race 2 (15 laps = 50.400 km)Qualifying, warm-up and the races will be broadcasted live on Eurosport, as well as on fiawtcc.com.
HANDICAP WEIGHTS FOR CURITIBA1. A Priaulx, +80kgs; 2. J Thompson, + 60kgs; 3. P Terting, + 55kgs; 4. D Müller, + 50kgs; 5. J Müller, +45kgs; 6. G Tarquini, +45kgs; 7. R Rydell, +35kgs; 8. Y Müller, +35kgs; 9. A Farfus, +30kgs; 10. J Gené, +30kgs; 11. G Morbidelli, +25kgs; 12. A Menu, +5kgs.
POINTS STANDINGS AFTER RACE 10 OF 20Drivers: 1. A Priaulx (BMW), 44pts; 2. J Thompson (SEAT) 41; 3. G Tarquini (SEAT) 40; 4. R Rydell (SEAT) 34; 5. Y Müller (SEAT) 33; 6. D Muller (BMW) 32; 7. P Terting (SEAT) 32; 8. J Muller (BMW) 30; 9. A Far(fus (Alfa Romeo) 28; 10. J Gené (SEAT) 24; 11. A Menu (Chevrolet) 18 ;… 14. R Huff (Chevrolet) 6;… 16. N Larini (Chevrolet) 3 ;...
Manufacturers : 1. SEAT, 127pts; 2. BMW, 126; 3. Alfa Romeo, 75; 4. Chevrolet 62.
