SEAT DRIVERS TOP BALLAST LIST
As a consequence of
their domination in the first two events of the season, SEAT drivers will carry
the heaviest success ballasts in their home race meeting at Valencia.
Rickard Rydell, who climbed to the top of the Drivers'
Championship after obtaining two second places in Mexico, will have 56 extra
kilos on board his León TDI car;
16 and 17 kilos more than his team-mates Jordi Gené who won the first race in
Puebla and Gabriele Tarquini who is currently second in the classification with
a gap of 2 points. SEAT Sport's two other drivers, Yvan Muller (third in the
championship) and Tiago Monteiro (Puebla's Race 2 winner) will be given a 32 kg
ballast, while Tom Coronel with 20 extra kilos completes a SEAT sextet on top of
the list.
Following their disappointing weekend in
Mexico, where only Andy Priaulx managed to score a point, the BMW drivers have
lost weight: Priaulx from 33 to 14, Jörg Müller from 26 to 11 and Félix Porteiro
from 14 to 9.
A total of sixteen drivers will have
success ballasts in Valencia, including the race-by-race entries Pérez-Aicart,
Lvov and Smetsky who will receive 30 entra kilos according to article 79 c) of
the Sporting Regulations.
Success ballast - Spain
56 kg R. Rydell
40
kg J. Gené
39 kg G. Tarquini
32
kg Y. Muller, T. Monteiro
30 kg J. M.
Pérez-Aicart, A. Lvov, A. Smetsky
20 kg T. Coronel
14
kg A. Priaulx
11 kg J. Müller
9
kg F. Porteiro
6 kg N. Larini
3
kg A. Farfus, A. Menu
1 kg O.
Tielemans
SEAT CHAMPION TO RACE IN VALENCIA
The
2007 SEAT León Supercopa champion Josè Manuel Pérez-Aicart will
make his FIA World Touring Car Championship debut in the next race meeting at
Valencia's Circuit Ricardo Tormo on May 18th.
The 26-year old
Spaniard will drive a petrol-powered SEAT León run by
SUNRED Engineering and entered by SEAT
Sport. Pérez-Aicart is the fourth young driver who has been given
the chance to race in the WTCC as a reward for the brilliant results achieved in
SEAT's own trophy, after Marc Carol (in 2005), Florian Gruber (in 2006) and
Oscar Nogués (twice in 2006 and 2007).
The young
Spaniard had his first drive in the León WTCC last week, during the official
test days in Valencia. "It was the best gift I've ever had. I had the chance
to complete 45 laps and discovered that the car is fantastic. Everything has
been perfect in the test and I hope to have as much fun in the races as I can,"
he said.
GOLDEN MOTORS JOIN IN
SPAIN
Golden Motors Honda Dealer Team from
St.Petersburg, Russia will take part in the WTCC Spanish event at Valencia with
two Honda Accord Euro R cars built by JAS Motorsport and run by the Estonian
team Artman Racing.
Alexander Lvov and Andrey
Smetsky, who were classified first and second in the 2007 Russian Touring Car
Championship, will be at the wheel of the two Japanese machines. They had
already participated in last year's WTCC round at Anderstorp.
Golden Motors have planned to take part in four other WTCC
events.
TESTING TIME FOR MELVIN
CHOO
Singapore
driver Melvin Choo completed his first test in the Thunder Asia BMW 320si car
that he will drive in this year's Asian Touring Car Series and the two last
rounds of the FIA WTCC at Okayama and Macau.
During a
three-day testing on Sepang's Grand Prix circuit's north course, Choo clocked
some encouraging times, including a fastest lap of 1:08.898 that smashed the
previous record for Super 2000 cars set by WTCC regular Franz Engstler.
Choo will take part in a few other test sessions
before the start of the Asian series, at Sepang on May 18th. "We
hope that we will be competitive by the time we make our first WTCC appearance,
in October at Okayama," team manager Raja Zaini said.
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