NEWS ARCHIVE
Honda’s decision to enter in the WTCC brings a glorious brand back to top level international automobile motor sport with a works programme since the company pulled out of Formula One. In recent years Honda cars have also been very successful in Touring Car racing, winning a number of national titles, three consecutive FIA European Cups (2009, 2010, 2011) and one WTCC race in 2008 (James Thompson at Imola).
Today during a press conference in Tokyo, Honda announced they will join the FIA World Touring Car Championship. Honda CEO Takanobu Ito explained: “We took the decision to enter in the WTCC with the European Civic. We will develop a totally new engine for this project and we are all excited about starting this new challenge.” For this project, Honda formed a joint partnership with Mugen and J.A.S. Motorsport. Mugen will manufacture a 1.6-litre turbo bespoke racing engine developed by Honda R&D.
WTCC regulars Mehdi Bennani and Javier Villa starred on Tuesday in a promotional event in the city of Assa, located in the Moroccan Sahara. Bennani and Villa took part in exhibition races, driving karts and Renault Clio Cup cars during the event that was aiming to promote motor sport in a Country that will host WTCC for the third time on Marrakech’s city circuit later this year.
Lukoil Racing Team driver Aleksey Dudukalo has claimed his first victory of the season in the Russian Ice Racing championship at Ramenskoe’s hippodrome, in the Moscow region. Last Sunday at Ramenskoe, in the championship’s opening event, Dudukalo and his LADA Kalina car dominated the rest of the field, winning all the heats they took part in, and are now leading the point table.
Readers of the popular website Touringcartimes.com voted Rob Huff as the best driver in the 2011 WTCC season. Huff collected twenty-five per cent of the votes to rank ahead of Norbert Michelisz and Darryl O'Young. "I'm absolutely made up to be voted the best driver... it certainly put a big smile on my face," said Huff, adding: "It's most unexpected, but it's certainly an award I've been chasing for a while. A big thank you to everyone who voted for me!"
Bamboo engineering announced they will run again two Chevrolet Cruze 1.6 turbo powered cars in 2012, with full specification upgrades and identical to the works RML cars. Team Principal, Richard Coleman said: “We’re talking to several top line drivers at the moment and we’ll hopefully be in a position to announce our line up within the next couple of weeks.”
Rounds 1 and 2 of the 2012 FIA World Touring Car Championship and the FIA European Touring Car Cup will take place at Monza, Italy, 10 and 11 March. The deadline to apply for media credentials is Tuesday, 28 February. No media credentials will be allocated after the aforesaid deadline.
This coming weekend, WTCC regulars Darryl O’Young and Franz Engstler will face off prior to the start of the WTCC season, at the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 hours of Daytona. The two touring car drivers will be competing against each other in the GT category, which includes a deep field of drivers from several racing disciplines across the globe. O’Young will be competing in a Porsche GT3 entered by Bullet Racing, and Engstler in a Liqui Moly Team Engstler/Mitchum Motorsport Porsche GT3.
Proteam Racing announced today that they resigned Mehdi Bennani for the 2012 season. Morocco’s 28-year old racer will be facing his second season with the Italian outfit at the wheel of a BMW 320 TC car; in 2011 Bennani’s best result was a sixth place in Macau and he was classified seventh in the Yokohama Trophy.
