CRUZE UNDERGOES INTENSE WINTER TESTING PROGRAMME AHEAD OF 2010

Four Sessions Scheduled In Jerez, Valencia And Algarve

There is no “dead season” for the Chevrolet Cruze in-between the 2009 and 2010 seasons of the World Touring CarChampionship. The team will use the relatively short break (4 months) to continue the development work on the Cruze, which will enter its second race year next March.

The winter testing program, which started in Jerez last week (17-18 December), includes three other sessions in Valencia (11-12 January), Algarve (20-21 January) and Valencia again (17-18 February). The Iberian peninsula should offer the necessary good weather conditions to carry on these tests.

Still, this was not entirely the case last week in Jerez, as rain disturbed the two days of activity undertaken by Alain Menu on the Andalusian circuit. Yvan Muller, the new recruitment of Chevrolet for 2010, will be driving the Cruze for the first time in Valencia mid-January, alongside Rob Huff.

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Alain Menu: «It was nice to be back behind the wheel last week in Jerez, although the rainprevented us to do proper development work. As weather and track conditions were changingconstantly, it made no sense to work on set-ups, but we completed some useful system checksand totaled 700 km without any trouble. I look forward to a white Christmas, but really hope thebad weather will spare Spain and Portugal as from January!”

Eric Nève: “The so-called winter break is actually one of the busiest and most important periodsof the year, as it is the only moment where we can focus exclusively on developing and testingnew solutions. What we’ll achieve during the winter will be critical for the coming season, as oncethe championship starts, events and travel make development work more difficult. We have highambitions for 2010, so we are doing our utmost during these winter months”.