World Touring Car Championship

WTCC redirects here. For the Canadian convention centre, see World Trade and Convention Centre.

The World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) is an international Touring Car championship organized by the FIA.

The WTCC was first held in 1987 concurrent to the long-running European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) in a Group A format, with races held in Bathurst and Mount Fuji. The championship was won by Roberto Ravaglia in a BMW M3. The series was not considered a success, due to the high costs involved, and lasted just a year.

In 1993, with the high popularity of the Supertouring category, the FIA hosted the Touring Car World Cup - an annual event for touring car drivers hailing from national championships all over the world. The 1993 race at Monza was won by Paul Radisich. The race was run for two more years, (won by Radisich again in 1994 at Donington Park, and Frank Biela in 1995 at Paul Ricard) before disappearing into obscurity. Until the end of 2005, when it made a return for national Super 2000 cars. The event was held at Vallelunga, and overall victory went to Richard Goransson, with Jason Plato (UK) and Alessandro Zanardi (ITA) taking race victories. The event is due to be run at the conclusion of the 2006 season.

In 2001, the ETCC was resumed with support from the FIA. At the request of interested manufacturers, it was changed to the current WTCC beginning with the 2005 season, and is now considered the third most important FIA championship after Formula One and the World Rally Championship.

With rounds at major prestigious circuits, the series is heavily supported by car manufacturers BMW, Alfa Romeo and SEAT. Ford, Chevrolet and Honda are also involved. It features compact and midsize cars based on Group N rules, yet modified to Super 2000 regulations, an intermediate level between the slightly modified Superproduction cars and the extinct Supertouring class.

Following the trend of recent FIA rules, cost control is a major theme in the technical regulation. Engines are limited to 2000 cc. Many technologies that have featured in production cars are not allowed, including variable valve timing, variable intake geometry, ABS brakes and traction control.

Guernseyman Andy Priaulx won the 2005 championship for BMW, ahead of Dirk Müller and Fabrizio Giovanardi.

2006 Calendar

Each race weekend contains two races of 50 kilometres. First race starting grid is determined by qualifying and the second race grid by first race result with top eight reversed.

Date	Country	Track	First race winner	Second race winner
April 2	Italy	Monza	Andy Priaulx	Augusto Farfus
April 30	France	Magny-Cours	Dirk Müller	Andy Priaulx
May 21	Great Britain	Brands Hatch	Yvan Muller	Alain Menu
June 4	Germany	Oschersleben	Andy Priaulx	Jörg Müller
July 2	Brazil	Curitiba	Jordi Gené	Andy Priaulx
July 30	Mexico	Puebla
September 3	Czech Republic	Brno
September 24	Turkey	Istanbul
October 8	Spain	Valencia
November 19	Macau	Macau

2006 Championship standings, after round 5 of 10

At Brands Hatch, Alain Menu scored the first ever win for Chevrolet.

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Wins	Points
1	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team UK	BMW 320si	4	44
2	James Thompson	SEAT Sport UK	SEAT León	0	41
3	Gabriele Tarquini	SEAT Sport Italia	SEAT León	0	40
4	Rickard Rydell	SEAT Sport Sverige	SEAT León	0	34
5	Yvan Muller	SEAT Sport Italia	SEAT León	1	33
6	Dirk Müller	BMW Team Germany	BMW 320si	1	32
7	Peter Terting	SEAT Sport Deutschland	SEAT León	0	32
8	Jörg Müller	BMW Team Germany	BMW 320si	1	30
9	Augusto Farfus	N. Technology	Alfa Romeo 156	1	28
10	Jordi Gené	SEAT Sport España	SEAT León	1	24
11	Alain Menu	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Lacetti	1	18
12	Gianni Morbidelli	N. Technology	Alfa Romeo 156	0	12
13	Alessandro Zanardi	BMW Team Italy-Spain	BMW 320si	0	8
14	Robert Huff	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Lacetti	0	6
15	Alessandro Balzan	DB Motorsport	Alfa Romeo 156	0	5
16	Nicola Larini	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Lacetti	0	3

Point system: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for top eight finishers.

External links

Auto racing series | Touring car racing

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2006 Calendar

2006 Championship standings, after round 5 of 10

External links