ZÜRICH / WELLINGBOROUGH, 28th September 2007 – Next weekend the 2007 World Touring Car Championship will close its European tour with the round number ten at Italy’s legendary motorsports temple of Monza, near Milan. It was here that Alain Menu and the Chevrolet Lacetti scored their first podium finish when the Italian race was the opening round of the 2006 season. Since then, the Chevrolet Lacetti’s score card has gradually become more impressive by each race, so far totaling eight WTCC wins in Brands Hatch (2), Brno, Zandvoort, Pau, Porto and Anderstorp (2), as well as an additional 11 podium finishes in Monza, Istanbul, Valencia (2), Zandvoort, Porto (3), Anderstorp (2) and Brands Hatch.

When reviewing the 2007 WTCC statistics so far, Chevrolet’s excellent form becomes even more apparent: Alain Menu has won races and scored more pole positions than anybody else. In fact, no other driver has managed to score more than one pole position this season! Menu also led more race laps than anybody else, while the Swiss driver shares second place with team-mate Rob Huff as far as fastest race laps goes. As far as the manufacturer standings are concerned, only BMW does better than Chevrolet in number of race wins, fastest laps and pole positions, but then the German manufacturer runs five cars against Chevrolet’s three. Against these odds Chevrolet is nevertheless the fastest qualifier of the season so far.

Since 2006, the Chevrolet Lacetti has also become the preferred weapon of choice in some national touring car championships, first in Germany and now in Denmark as well, where Henrik Lundgaard and Pontus Mörth scored a perfect three out of three in the last DTCC round at Padborg Park last weekend. Earlier this year, the Spanish lady driver Maria De Villota had won the Nürburgring round of the German touring car championship. The DTCC – with some 30 starters representing six car manufacturers – is arguably one of the toughest national series in Europe, giving even more shine to the four wins Morth and Lundgaard scored for Chevrolet so far this year. In Germany, De Villota proved to be a worthy successor to the 2006 Champion and Chevrolet Lacetti driver, Vincent Radermecker, by scoring a win, three seconds and three thirds in her maiden touring car season. In both series there is still one weekend to go before the titles are decided, but already other countries are showing a keen interest in acquiring the 2007 WTCC Lacettis.

• QUOTES

Nicola Larini: “After all the bad luck I have had in the last two events, where each time I was forced off the track in the first meters of race 1, I hope my bad luck is now over! Monza is my home race and I hope it will mark the start of another positive cycle. The good news is that I am “slimmer” than before, only 40 kg of success ballast. This may play a role, as all my direct competitors are carrying heavy ballasts and in Monza weight plays a crucial role. Our Chevrolet Lacetti has improved at fast tracks this year and we had some very positive results when we tested here in April. So I’m confident and I definitely aim for my first WTCC victory.”

Alain Menu: “Another trip down memory lane for me: the first ‘real’ podium of Chevrolet and myself in the WTCC. But that was almost two complete seasons ago, as it happened at the very start of last year. Now it will be a bit more difficult with all the success ballast I’m carrying, but we have seen that the Chevrolet Lacetti seems to like fast tracks more now than before, so who knows? Everybody is now carrying lots of weight, so the battle for the top will be more equal than ever before, both in qualifying as in the races, even if being ‘heavy’ is a distinct disadvantage at Monza. Don’t be surprised if some twenty cars qualify in one second and if some of the independents show up at the front.”

Rob Huff: “Monza will be the toughest challenge of the year for me, if not of all three past seasons. I’ve never run with 60 kilos of ballast before but the way things are going for me lately I’m confident we can do well. I’m really pleased with the car and my performances of late and a lot of that is down my race engineer and the crew who have managed to turn the season around. Leaving Monza with a few extra points would be great, before we head for the grand finale in Macau, which is definitely the track that suits the Chevrolet better than any of the others. Monza and Macau are two of my favourite tracks so I’m quite happy to go there, even running heavy.”

Eric Nève: “With six wins so far our season can barely get better. Our goal for 2007 was to be a regular contender for race wins and podiums; in 18 races our drivers visited the podium no less than 14 times. But it is a well know fact that one easily gets used to success so obviously we’ll be looking for more wins and podiums at Monza. Nevertheless, each year we have achieved the goals we had set before the season and that clearly shows in the interest teams around the continent are showing in our cars. Monza being the last race in Europe we will also host an important number of guests. By now every Chevrolet dealer in Europe knows what the WTCC is and how well we’re doing in the championship, so we want to use the race in Italy to once again let people sample the excellent and friendly atmosphere of the WTCC.”