Alain Menu Conducts Three-day Session In WTCC’s New Portuguese Venue

While the WTCC cars are traveling to Asia by sea for the final two rounds of the 2009 season, the Chevrolet team is continuing in Europe its test and development programme of the Cruze.

Following the tests in Zolder with Nicola Larini and at Magny-Cours with Rob Huff earlier this summer, the Cruze has been this week in the Autodromo do Algarve, in Portimão, Portugal, for a three-day session, with Alain Menu at the wheel. The work in Portimão was focused on testing different set-ups and suspension solutions.

The test went well with no hiccups at all, except for some rain showers that reduced activity on Tuesday. This test has also been very useful to build a first set of data about the demanding new circuit in the Algarve, which will host the Portuguese WTCC round next year.

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Alain Menu: «It was a fruitful session. We had the first day of the session spoilt by the rain butwe compensated by staying for a third day, which allowed us to complete the foreseen work wehad programmed. From Wednesday we have been able to do 300 km per day, with no problems,basically fine-tuning settings and looking for optimal balance. This is the first time I have been inPortimão and I must say I’m impressed with the track and the quality of the venue. It’s a veryvaried and beautiful natural circuit, with very interesting corners and a long straight which allowsslip-streaming. I am sure we will have a lot of fun here next year!”