The prize money reserved for the competitors of the Yokohama Trophy will be increased further in 2011, up to a grand total of 624,000 euros thanks to the support of Yokohama and Monroe.
Just like in 2010, Yokohama will award 40,000 euros at each of the twelve events, meaning 480,000 euros over the season. This prize money will be split among the top six drivers classified by adding together the points obtained in the two races of each event, according to the following scale:
- 12,000 euros to the first driver
- 10,000 euros to the second driver
- 8,000 euros to the third driver
- 5,000 euros to the fourth driver
- 3,000 euros to the fifth driver
- 2,000 euros to the sixth driver
An additional 84,000 euros will be at stake again for the Monroe Performer that allocates 3,500 euros to the driver setting the fastest lap in the Trophy at each race.
New from this year is the 60,000-euro prize money reserved for the drivers at the wheel of cars complying with the 2010 Appendix J (2.0-litre normally aspirated and turbo diesel). This prize money will be awarded to the top three drivers classified by adding together the points obtained in the two races of each event, according to the following scale:
- 2,500 euros to the first driver
- 1,500 euros to the second driver
- 1,000 euros to the third driver
Prize money will be cumulative.
O’Young and Bennani are due to compete in the Yokohama Trophy again
SPANISH TEST FOR HUFF AND MENU
Chevrolet spent two days testing at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit, under dry and sunny conditions.
Rob Huff and Alain Menu drove their brand new Cruze 1.6-litre turbo race cars for the first time after a shake down in the UK last Friday.
No reliability issues were reported and both drivers were able to complete the entire programme on schedule, covering around 500 km each.
Huff said: "It was very important for me to get some decent mileage under my belt, understand better how the new engine works and how to drive it. The balance of the car is different so we looked into different chassis set-up options, as you would normally do during winter testing. I am glad the car reacts well to changes and am now looking forward to some more testing days in Barcelona next week."
And Menu echoed: "We concentrated our work on what we call the driveability, or better said how to get the engine power and torque on the track keeping the front tyres within their limits. We ended up reviewing quite a few options. We now need to go through all the data and see how we can progress things for the up coming tests."
The new Chevrolet Cruze tested for two days in Valencia
WTCC TEAMS INTENSIFY TESTING PROGRAMME
With a little bit more than two months to the start of the season in Brazil, WTCC teams are intensifying their testing programmes.
Chevrolet, Polestar Racing and SUNRED Engineering will spend two days at Barcelona’s Catalunya Circuit next week, on January 20th and 21st.
Chevrolet will test with two Cruze cars powered by the new 1.6-litre turbo engine, driven by Rob Huff and the reigning world champion Yvan Muller. SUNRED will also bring two SEAT León Tdi cars and Polestar two Volvo C30 cars still powered by the 2.0-litre normally aspirated engine
BMW teams ROAL Motorsport, Liqui Moly Team Engstler and Proteam Motorsport are due to test at Vallelunga, Italy, in the first decade of February.