Oschersleben: Series preview

ROUTE TO: OSCHERSLEBEN, GERMANY

Rounds 15th and 16th of the FIA WTCC will take place next week in Germany, at Oschersleben's Motorsport Arena on September 5th.

The German track, located in the Bode region some 30 km from the city of Magdeburg, is a traditional venue for the FIA Touring Cars having hosted the European Touring Car Championship from 2001 to 2004 and the World Touring Car Championship from 2005. The WTCC meeting is also one of the fans' favourites as it usually attracts large crowds.

Oschersleben is regarded as BMW's home circuit. Not only because it is in Germany, but also because the BMW drivers have managed to win nine out of the twelve WTCC races held there so far, with Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus claiming three victories apiece. The Bavarian cars were only defeated at Oschersleben once by SEAT in 2007's Race 1, when Yvan Muller scored the first win of the Leon TDI car.

Priaulx and Farfus shared last year's glory, with the Briton coming first in Race 1 and the Brazilian winning Race 2.

CHEVROLET EAGER TO WIN IN GERMANY

The Chevrolet team are facing the most difficult racetrack. Never so far a Chevrolet car has managed to win a WTCC race at Oschersleben. And yet the team come to Germany with the strongest determination to keep the lead in both the Drivers' and Manufacturers' championships. In view of the German event, Chevrolet spent three days testing in Magny-Cours.

"We have prepared well, and the test we made in Magny-Cours a couple of weeks ago was very useful to further fine-tune some technical options," explained the championship leader Yvan Muller, the only Chevrolet driver who won in Oschersleben, in 2007 when he was driving for SEAT.

Chevrolet Motorsport manager Eric Nève added: "For the first time we enter the final part of the season as leader of both championships. We are clearly determined to do well. Taking into account the transport times to Japan and China, the calendar is going to be extremely tight from now up until the end of the season. This is why it was extremely important to use the summer weeks to continue working and advancing in the development of the Cruze, and I am very happy with the work done so far by the team."

NO SUMMER BREAK FOR ROMANOV AND MICHELISZ

WTCC competitors Andrei Romanov and Norbert Michelisz did not stop their racing during the summer break.

The Russian driver dominated the event of the German ADAC Procar series at Lausitz's Eurospeedway. At the wheel of a Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si, Romanov won both races under pouring rain.

Michelisz was invited to take part in the Lamborghini Trophy round on his home racetrack, Budapest's Hungaroring; in the first race he completed a brilliant recovery from eighth to fourth, but then retired in the second race.

KEVIN CHEN TESTS FOR PROTEAM

Taiwan's Kevin Chen completed his first laps in a WTCC car last Tuesday at Mugello, driving a Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si.

Chen - 31 years old from Taipei - will join the Italian team for the two final race meetings of the season at Okayama and Macau. This will mark Chen's return to his racing roots, as he began his motorsport career claiming two US titles in the SCCA Regional Touring Championship, back in 2003 and 2004. After finishing runner up in the 2005 Show Room Stock Car Series he moved to single seaters, competing in the Formula V6 Asia (2007/08), GP Asia (2008/09) and British Formula 3 (2009).

"Kevin has a lot of potential, but he needs to test to get used to touring cars again. Our aim is to give him the chances to become competitive in view of his WTCC debut. Together we look forward at Okayama and Macau as the first step in view of a possible full time involvement in the 2011 WTCC," team principal Valmiro Presenzini explained.

Chen will test again this weekend at Magione, together with Fabio Fabiani who will make his third WTCC appearance of the year next week at Oschersleben.

MENU AND MULLER TO RACE IN BUENOS AIRES

Chevrolet WTCC drivers Alain Menu and Yvan Muller will take part in the 200 Km of Buenos Aires, a round of the Argentine TC2000 Championship, on November 7th.

Muller and Menu will be at the wheel of Chevrolet Vectra cars run by the Chevrolet Elaion team, teaming-up with Guillermo Ortelli and Christian Ledesma respectively.

Chevrolet WTCC drivers have already taken part in the event; Menu won in 2006 and finished on the podium in 2007, 2008 and 2009, while Muller will make his first appearance.

Wayne Brannon, CEO of Chevrolet Europe commented: "For a global brand like Chevrolet, it is particularly positive to build bridges between the continents. This is true for motorsports porgrammes as in any other area. We are glad that the cooperation between our WTCC and TC2000 teams is going on this year too and we are sure that the presence of two great drivers like Alain and Yvan will be a plus for our brand in Argentina."

-source: wtcc