The number of drivers representing the BMW national teams in the FIA ETCC will increase to six in Magny Cours with the addition of a BMW 320i entered by BMW Team Belgium Luxembourg for Kurt Mollekens.
While the Belgian driver, who has raced in everything from karts to Formula 3000, is new to the series his team is not. His car will be run by RBM and so he will be team-mate to BMW Team Great Britain's Andy Priaulx. Kurt, who is 29 and comes from Keerbergen, will drive in the next five rounds of the series. This means his last race will be on home territory in Spa-Francorchamps. It is a circuit he not only knows well but on which he has been successful, winning the Spa 24 Hours race in 2000.
Commenting on their racing programme, Philippe Denennin, President BMW Group Belgium Luxembourg, said: "We are delighted to be back in the FIA ETCC as we have very good memories of working with RBM, who ran BMW Team Belgium for us in 2001. We feel we have the best possible set up for these five races. Kurt is a very fast, experienced driver, while the results achieved by Bart Mampaey, who has been running the BMW 320i for Andy Priaulx since the beginning of last year, are excellent. I think Kurt and Andy will work very well together as a team and we hope to be able to help BMW win another ETCC title this year."
Magny Cours was a very successful circuit for BMW last year with BMW Team Deutchsland's Jörg Müller winning both races there. The teams have tested at the 4.411 kilometre track, which is located in central France, and most of the drivers feel the weekend in France will be more successful than the recent one in Spain. BMW Team Italy-Spain's Alex Zanardi knows the circuit well from racing and testing when he was with WilliamsF1 and Lotus and also testing over the winter with his BMW.
"Magny Cours is a circuit where you have got to use the kerbs to make it as short as possible. It is also a circuit designed for Formula One cars as it is very smooth. In the race you have to make sure you have a car that stays in balance. Having tested there will help us a lot as here we run the car with a different set-up to other tracks. I think the BMW will work well, but one of the key factors in doing well is being nice to your tyres to keep them alive as long as possible. Luckily our races are short so it should not be a big problem," were his comments.
The Valencia track where the last ETCC races were held was not kind to the BMW drivers with Andy Priaulx and Dirk Müller (BMW Team Deutschland) sharing top BMW honours with a fourth place each. However, it was BMW Team Italy-Spain's Antonio Garcia who was the only BMW driver to lead a race, doing this in the second race before being overtaken by the Alfas. The outcome from Valencia is that Alfa Romeo now leads the Manufacturers' Championship with 54 points while BMW is second on 47. Also in the Drivers' Championship Alfa Romeo driver Gabriele Tarquini and his team-mate, Fabrizio Giovanardi, have 28 and 26 points respectively at the top of the table. Jörg is third on 22, Dirk fourth on 21 and Andy fifth on 20. However, there is a good side to this. Jörg is the only BMW driver who will carry ballast in Magny Cours and this is just ten kilos. The Indpenendents' Trophy is very much the domain of BMW driver Tom Coronel in his Carly Motors entry. He leads this class with 34 points from fellow BMW driver Stefano D'Aste in the Proteam Motorsport car on 25.
The on track action starts on Saturday and the schedule for the FIA ETCC is as follows:
Saturday, 17 April 09.00 - 09.30 - Free Practice 112.40 - 13.10 - Free Practice 215.10 - 15.40 - Qualifying
Sunday, 18 April 09.30 - 09.45 - Warm Up14.45 - Race 1 - 12 laps (52.930km)15.45 - Race 2 - 12 laps (52.930km)
