IMOLA LAUNCH FIA WTCC WEEKEND
Imola's
Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari is ready to re-open after two years.
Track activity will start again with the FIA World Touring Car
Championship race meeting, on September 20th and 21st.
Yesterday
a large representative of media attended the event's official launch,
meeting BMW Team Italy-Spain's Alessandro Zanardi and SEAT Sport's
Gabriele Tarquini.
Journalists
and TV cameramen was given the opportunity of having a ride on board of
Zanardi's and Tarquini's racing cars to discover the changes to the
track.
At
the end of the day even Tarquini wanted to experience the thrill of
being a passenger and sat in the BMW car alongside Zanardi, who
commented: "We could hardly be in closer contact!"
Earlier this week, following the inspection from FIA officials, the Italian circuit was given a T1 degree homologation.
WTCC REPRESANTIVES VISIT MOSCOW
Representatives
of the FIA WTCC will visit Moscow in the next days. KSO General Manager
Marcello Lotti and drivers Rickard Rydell, Alain Menu, James Thompson,
Jaap van Lagen and Viktor Shapovolav will play the role of the
championship's ambassadors with Russian authorities and media. After
visiting the Moscow International Motorshow at Crocus
Expo on Sunday afternoon, on Monday the WTCC party will attend a round
table at the Ritz Hotel, together with the Mayor of Moscow and the
President of the Russian Sporting Authority RAF.
The main subject for discussion will be the plan to organise a WTCC Russian event in the near future.
"This is definitely a priority for us and our car manufacturers," explained Marcello Lotti. "We
are working to include Russia in the 2010 calendar. However, everything
depends on the completion of an FIA homologated racetrack suitable to
host the championship."
MANABU ORIDO TO DRIVE FOR CHEVROLET
Chevrolet
will campaign a fourth Lacetti car in the final three meetings of the
FIA WTCC season for Japanese driver Manabu Orido.
The
39-year old from Chiba will make his debut in Monza, before taking part
in his home event at Okayama and the WTCC finale at Macau. His car,
usually driven by Tomas Schie in the Swedish Touring Car Championship,
will be run by the Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden team.
Orido
is a very popular driver in Japan; he started his career winning the
1992 Fuji Freshman series. In 1995 he became the Japanese Super Sylvia
champion before moving to the Japanese Super GT Championship. Among the
important results he achieved are second places in the 2001 Macau Guia
Race and the 2004 Le Mans 24 Hours in the GT class.
"It is a great honour to represent Japan in WTCC," Manabu Orido said. "I
would like to thank all those who made this happen for me. I hope that
my presence will help the series to gain popularity in Japan,
especially for the Okayama event in October. Hopefully my knowledge of
the track, which is new to the WTCC calendar, may help the other three
Chevrolet drivers in their races."
BARILLA PASTA PARTY AT IMOLA
Famous
Italian pasta company Barilla, who sponsor Alessandro Zanardi, will
offer a dish of pasta to all the spectators who will visit the paddock
during the FIA WTCC race day in Imola.
Using
the "pasta party" format introduced in a number of sporting and musical
events (like the New Marathon and rock concerts), Barilla will build an
hospitality structure inside the paddock where between 4,000 and 5,000
dishes of pasta will be prepared and served in-between the two WTCC
races on Sunday 21st September, from 13.00 to 15.00.
All the spectators who have purchased a paddock ticket will be welcome inside the Barilla hospitality area.
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