2011 World Touring Car Championship

[steer]

Great to see Tom back in the mix, a true Gentleman of the sport.
Also very giving of his time ... :doublethumb:

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Those were the days!

 

[OverTake.gg]

Former Formula 1, WTCC and Champ Car driver Alex Zanardi won the New York Marathon for hand bikers. The 45-year-old Italian, who lost both legs in a heavy crash during a CART race at the Lausitzring ten years ago, came two seconds before the finish line than the Pole Rafal Wilk.

Zanardi, who completed the marathon in one hour, thirteen minutes and 58 seconds, said that it's his goal to win an Olympic medal at the Paralympics in London.

This man is a hero and a true inspiration for the less fortunate people in this world. On behalf of the whole RaceDepartment Community we congratulate Alex with this heroic achievement!

Be inspired by the following movie...

...and four years later he was back in the car and wins the WTCC race at Oschersleben

 

[OverTake.gg]

Alain Menu beat Colin Turkington by a small gap at the end of an exciting first race at the Shanghai Tianma Circuit. Rob Huff claimed third place ahead of Yvan Muller and reduced his gap from the championship leader to ten points.

Turkington enlivened the whole race, chasing Huff for second place, overtaking him and then putting the pressure on Menu in the latest ten laps. The Irishman gave the Wiechers-Sport team their best result ever in WTCC.

Menu resorted to the whole of his long racing experience to drive back the assaults of the BMW drivers and managed not to make the lesser mistake or open the least of a gap, securing his fifth victory of the season.

Tom Coronel and Kristian Poulsen finished in fifth and sixth after Norbert Michelisz dropped down in the late stages of the race.


In the second race of the day Yvan Muller claimed an eighth and crucial victory in the season that significantly increased his leading margin in the championship standings to twenty points ahead of his Chevrolet team-mate Rob Huff.

The reigning world champion benefitted from a contact between Huff and Gabriele Tarquini on the first lap to move to second behind the Italian. Three more laps and Muller was leading and capable of creating a big gap.

Tarquini completed a great defensive race, salvaging a second position that was completely unexpected, considering the brake problems he had had in the first race and the fact that this was not the best track for the SUNRED León cars.

Once again Colin Turkington was among the top players, winning the Yokohama Trophy, narrowly missing the podium and offering a great show to the Chinese fans.
A brilliant Charles Ng scored his first WTCC point by finishing tenth after having started from the last spot of the grid.

More FIA WTCC news and discussions you can find in our motorsport forum

 

[Linus Pettersson]

Great performance by a great guy!

 

[Zeynel Babacan]

WoW great well done I hope we will see him again next season in the WTCC with the second ROAL BMW 320 TC

 

[Apex1972]

wow, makes you thankful for those things we take for granted each day.

 

[Peter Eckhardt]

Not Vettel, nor Schumi or Jimi Clark nor Jacki Steward no Senna Alex you are my personel Hero . You have so strong willing ,you can fight who everybody give up ? Alex you are my idol in all what an idol can be . I wish you all the best for your life

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

Awesome Alex! Well done!!!

 

[Philip Antonia]

A true inspiration to us all. Well done Alex on your continued efforts to challenge yourself regardless of what fate dealt you:good:.

 

[Ado Pusina]

High as a human spirit can go...Its an honour to witness this kind of will power and pure spirit

 

[Mark Reynolds]

This series is about as interesting as watching paint dry these days, apart from when Tom won of course Yet another series ruined by behind the scenes meddling.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

yes it has become pretty boring with only one factory team left (Chevy). Maybe next year with the Polestar Volvo team at full strenght it will be better.

Personally I hope they will ban all the factory teams and make it a multi-brand privateer championship on European tracks only. (like the old ETCC)

 

[Philip Antonia]

I've found it quite exciting this season, especially Volvo giving the Chevy's something to think about. Obviously WTCC is never as aggressive as BTCC, but it has been better this year. Just a pity that Muller has been catching a bit of luck during the 2nd half of the season and Huffs early season results are now a distant memory:frown:.

Fingers crossed it swings the other way for Huffy at Macau:good:.

 

[robeyamy]

Thank goodness

 

[robeyamy]

The thrills：舌：

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

This weekend the season finale is held in Macau.

Tom leads us around the track:

Nice news: a Peugeot 308 will be driving this race!

 

[Péter Bártfai]

I love this track! And there'll be a Peugeot 308? Very nice indeed!

 

[Kyle Constable]

Not Anymore, been excluded for not complying to original specs http://www.touringcartimes.com/article.php?id=7017

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Yeah the FIA is great in welcoming a new brand on the grid by excluding it. Way to go!

Also two heavy crashes have occurred during the latest session:
- Freddy Barth's car caught fire while he was unconscious in his vehicle. He has been taken to the hospital.
- Robert Dahlgren's car caught fire as well after a serious crash.