Chevrolet newsletter

The Cruze WTCC Christens The New Guangdong Circuit In China

O'Young performs test and exhibition during CTCC event

ZURICH - WELLINGBOROUGH, 7th December 2010 - It's not vacation time yet for the Chevrolet Cruze, the recently crowned WTCC Champion. Following the championship finale in Macau, one of the race cars stayed in China where it starred in an exhibition at Guangdong circuit last weekend, during the final round of the Chinese Touring Car Championship.

For the occasion, Chevrolet China had organised a contest amongst customers and fans from around the country. The winners had the opportunity to participate in a driving clinic, to drive the new road Cruze 1.6 turbo model and to participate in a tournament with race-spec Cruzes.

Darryl O'Young was the racing coach over the weekend and the man behind the wheel of the Cruze WTCC which sported the Chinese flag. The Hong Kong driver, who drove a privateer Chevy of Bamboo Engineering in the WTCC this season, performed something more than a mere exhibition. On one hand, he was entrusted the mission to set-up the circuit's record for homologation purposes and on the other, he carried out a rough first test on a track that could host a WTCC round in 2011 (a final decision is expected to be taken by the FIA World Council later this week), allowing the team to gather some valuable initial data.

QUOTES

Darryl O'Young : "To be able to drive the World Champion Cruze for the first time, and to do it in such an exciting setting, in front of a crowd of many thousands of people, was a terrific and very rewarding experience. We did 30 laps, in three different runs, on a circuit which is tight and twisty, and certainly very interesting from a technical point of view. We broke the lap record by over two seconds and collected interesting information for the team. The Cruze is obviously a fantastic car, I loved it, you can really feel how much development work has been put into it. I definitely would want to drive one in my next WTCC campaign!"

-source: chevroleteurope