As cars and parts are on their way back from Brazil on board a cargo ship, the 2011 WTCC season faces a further 20-day break before resuming for rounds 3 and 4 at Zolder on the Easter weekend.
The WTCC Race of Belgium, that takes place on April 24th, will open the European part of the championship that will last until the WTCC Race of Spain at Valencia on the first weekend of September before the long journey to the Far East for the three final meetings.
The circuit of Zolder will host the World Championship for the second consecutive year and the event will also mark the first appearance of the season for the Wiechers-Sport and Zengö Dension teams.
They will run one BMW 320 TC car apiece, driven by Urs Sonderegger and Norbert Michelisz respectively.
On the same occasion bamboo-engineering’s racers Darryl O’Young and Yukinori Taniguchi are expected to swap the old Chevrolet Lacetti for the brand new Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T.
After the Brazilian opener, the 2011 WTCC will resume on the Easter weekend
THE MONROE PERFORMER GOES ON. TWO WHEELS
Monroe announced that their Monroe Performer Trophy will also award two-wheeled season prizes.
Besides rewarding the competitors of the Yokohama Trophy with 3,500 euros for setting the category’s fastest lap in each of the 24 races of the year, the Monroe Performer will also award three prestigious final prizes to the drivers who will set the highest number of overall fastest laps.
The first prize will be one Ducati motorcycle, the second one Elmoto electric bicycle and the third one Marzocchi bicycle.
Rob Huff is the first Monroe Performer leader as he clocked the overall fastest lap in both races at Curitiba, while Kristian Poulsen made a clean sweep in the Yokohama Trophy and pocketed 7,000 euros.
In Curitiba the Monroe Performer awarded 7,000 euros to Kristian Poulsen