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| BRAZILIAN WINTER AND SOCCER FEVER WELCOME WTCC | |
| Chevrolet's Daily Web Conference: All Set For Tomorrow | |
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CURITIBA, 30 June 2006 - The World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) circus has put up its tents in Curitiba, where the fifth event of the season, the HSBC Race of Brazil, will take place this week-end. It is winter time in the Southern hemisphere and ... it feels like it! The weather in Curitiba, located some 900 metres above sea level in the State of Paraná, has been quite chilly, overcast and humid these days, but this is not affecting the passion of Brazilians for soccer, as the Seleção canarinho is preparing to play the World Cup quarter-final against France tomorrow.
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This first overseas race has allowed the Chevrolet WTCC Racing to resume its traditional daily live web conference from "fly-away" locations. But, unfortunately, something went wrong with the satellite connection, leaving most of the fans and media, who connected from around the world today, with only the sound and the slides of the live web conference. The problem has now been located and everything is being done to have a proper connection by tomorrow which should allow both images and sound to be broadcasted correctly from pit number 1 at the track, where the conference studio has been set up.
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Tomorrow, Saturday July 1st, the live web conference will start at 9:30pm CET (4:30pm local time), immediately after the first qualifying session. The web conference can be accessed through
http://www.chevrolet-webconference.com/60017wtcc/curitiba/ or through www.chevroleteurope.com (clicking on the flash button).
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In today's web conference, the three Chevrolet drivers, who have never raced in Curitiba, and Mark Busfield shared their first impressions with fans and journalists around the globe. In particular, Team Manager Mark Busfield explained how professional teams like RML face the difficulties posed by races very far from home: "Overseas races are never easy, as you have to operate far from home and we do not have our usual trucks and some of the equipment. Between the cars, the equipment and the spare parts, we have here in Brazil 15 tons of materials and a team of 26 people. From a logistical point of view, it is always a challenge to orchestrate all this".
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The Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba, a twisty and technically interesting circuit of 3695 metres built in 1967, is hosting a WTCC event for the first time. As always happens in these cases, an extra free practice session took place on Friday to allow drivers to familiarize themselves with the track and the teams to acquire initial data for the car settings.
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"For us it has been a good opportunity to check that the cars are ok", said Mark Busfield. "We haven't seen the cars since the Oschersleben race, at the end of which they were put into containers to be shipped over to Brazil, a journey that has taken almost three weeks. We have been checking, servicing and re-building the cars during the last two days, including, of course, Alain's car, which had been severely damaged in the accident in Race 2 in Germany and had to be rebuilt in the factory and sent here by plane. All three cars are perfectly ok and ready to race".
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Most drivers were not looking for performance in this first free practice, which saw Rob Huff posting the 7th fastest time (1.25.819), at 0.6s from the fastest car (Rydell's Seat) while Menu was 16th (1.26.371) and Larini 21st (1.26.885).
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| CURITIBA WTCC SCHEDULE (All times local = CET minus 5 hours) | |
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Saturday July 1st
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| 09.00-09.30 (14.00-14.30 CET) | Free Practice 1 |
| 12.00-12.30 (17.00-17.30 CET) | Free Practice 2 |
| 15.00-15.30 (20.00-20.30 CET) | Qualifying |
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Sunday July 2nd
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| 09.00-09.15 (14.00-14.15 CET) | Warm Up |
| 12.05-12.30 (17.05-17.30 CET) | WTCC Race 1 (14 laps = 51.730 km) |
| 16.30-16.55 | WTCC Race 2 (14 laps = 51.730 km) |
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| > | 19 July 2006 Chevrolet heads to Mexico after intensive tests |
| > | 30 June 2006 Brazilian winter and soccer fever welcome WTCC |
| > | 23 June 2006 Interactive live web conference from Curitiba |
| > | 29 May 2006 Chevrolet Starts Four-Race “World Tour” In Germany |
| > | 19 May 2006 Menu 8th in free practice session |
| > | 10 Mai 2006 Rob Huff Keen To Go Back To Track Of First Touring Car Success |
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21 April 2006 Balances and Calculators As Important as Stopwatches |
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27 March 2006 35 Cars Expected In Closer Than Ever Touring Car Fest |
| > | 22 March 2006 Ideal Conditions At Second Day Of Official Test |
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21 March 2006 Team Sees Winter Promise Confirmed |
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10 March 2006 First Privateer Lacetti Runs In Magny Cours |
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28 February 2006 Learning Process On New Tyres Continues |
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21 February 2006 Drivers Enthused By 2006 Chevrolet Lacetti WTC |
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08 February 2006 Rob Huff Happy With “Comfortable and Smooth” Car |
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30 January 2006 First Customer Cars Will Run In ADAC Procar Championship; WTCC Outing Possible |
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12 January 2006 Continues Involvement in Top-Level Motorsports |
| > | 11 Januar 2006 New Car To Start Testing In February; Customer Cars Available |
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