Alain Menu Started Lacetti’s Winning Streak At Kent Track Last Season
Next weekend, the 2007 World Touring Car Championship returns to the very track where last season Alain Menu scored Chevrolet’s very first touring car win. Since that win at Brands Hatch, both Rob Huff and Alain Menu have scored a few more WTCC victories: all four new venues on the 2007 calendar were won by either Menu or Huff, while Nicola Larini visited the podium on four other occasions. Now, Chevrolet and the RML team will be looking to score their first repeat win.
• QUOTES
Nicola Larini: “Brands Hatch is the home race for our team and a favorable circuit for the Lacetti, as proved last year when Alain won race two. I hope the weather conditions will give us a hand: wet conditions sort of level the handicaps imposed by success ballast. With 50 kilos I will be the heaviest of the Chevrolets, so I hope for some rain, although the spectators might not agree. I will be testing in the week of the race and I am confident that we will have some good cards to play in Brands. For me, it is going to be a very important race with regard to the championship. I need to score some serious points if I still want to have a chance in the overall standings before we go to Monza and Macau.”
Alain Menu: “Home sweet home! Going back to Brands is probably the best way to forget about our Oschersleben weekend where only Rob scored some points. Of all the tracks in the WTCC, Brands Hatch is the one I know best since I have raced here so many times. Last year that experience – and the rain – helped me secure Chevrolet’s first win. In Germany both Nic and I were innocent victims of other drivers’ behavior and it cost us dearly. At Brands, the Chevrolet Lacetti has always done well, so with us running a bit lighter and the others a bit heavier than at the last race we can hopefully qualify fast enough to stay out of those mid-grid incidents. It would certainly be good to score another win for Chevrolet.”Rob Huff: “I’m absolutely ecstatic about the Brands race. The build-up over here in the UK is huge and I’m sure the event will be great. Everywhere I go people are asking me for tickets. This week I will be driving a number of British journalists around the track, next weekend I’ll be doing some radio interviews in London with some of the other British drivers, then some more PR stuff… Brands is where I won my first ever touring car race back in 2004, so obviously I would like to do my friends, family and fans proud by finishing on the podium again “at home”. That said, they also know that I’ll be carrying 45 kilos of ballast, so that takes some of the pressure off me.”
Mark Busfield: “We have prepared for our home race in the best possible way. The four-week gap has allowed the team to take the cars apart and check them from top to bottom and from front splitter to rear wing. We also did a lot of testing, working on fine-tuning different set-ups. Alain tested at Pembrey, Rob at MIRA and Nicola will be testing next week at Snetterton, helping Yokohama in defining their 2008-spec rain tyre. He will also be doing some more set-up work as well. Of course the whole team is looking forward to our home race, hoping for a repeat of last year’s maiden win. Having both shed 10 kilos of success weight after Oschersleben, Alain and Nic will be more than motivated to make up for chances lost in Germany, especially with all drivers ahead of them in the championship running with the maximum success ballast of 60 kilos.”
Eric Nève: “Brands Hatch holds a very special place in the history of Chevrolet Europe, since Alain scored the Lacetti’s first ever WTCC win there last season. Since then, Chevrolet has become a contender for victory at almost every occasion and we obviously would like to see history repeat itself. Both Alain and Rob can consider themselves “locals” and their experience combined with the improved Lacetti and the weight reduction should see them running at the front. Brands Hatch has always been a classic touring car fest and I’m sure it will be the same this year.”
BRANDS HATCH RACE SCHEDULE
Saturday, 22nd September 200709.00-09.30 Free Practice 111.15-11.45 Free Practice 215.00-15.30 QualifyingSunday, 23rd September 200710.00-10.15 Warm up12.05-12.30 Race 1: 14 laps = 51.842kms (Rolling start)15.35-16.00 Race 2: 14 laps = 51.842kms (Standing start)
DRIVERS POINTS STANDINGS AFTER RACE 16 OF 221. A Farfus (BMW), 69pts; 2. A Priaulx (BMW), 68; 3. J Müller (BMW), 63; 4. Y Muller (SEAT), 56; 5. G Tarquini (SEAT), 51; 6. N Larini (Chevrolet) 48;… 8. A Menu (Chevrolet) 45; 9. R Huff (Chevrolet) 35;…
MANUFACTURERS STANDINGS AFTER RACE 16 OF 221. BMW, 204pts; 2. SEAT, 175; 3. Chevrolet, 150; 4. Alfa Romeo, 84.
