100 days are left before the start of the Russian World Touring round which will be held at the Moscow Raceway located near Moscow. The upcoming season promises to become really interesting. First of all, the World Touring Car Championship will switch to the new technical regulations meaning the cars in the established TC1 class will become fasters and more spectacular. Secondly, the factory team Citroёn Racing comes to the WTCC together with the nine-time World Rally champion Sébastien Loeb.
“The double chevrons” are in active preparations for the upcoming battle so that they are able to start fighting for the title in their debut season against the strong Honda team. By the way, these two factory teams will have their first face-to-face meeting this week already during the pre-season tests in Le Castellet, France. Another intrigue of the season is going to lie in the in-team competition between two highly-awarded French drivers — Loeb (who has just turned 40, by the way, on February 26) and his teammate Yvan Muller, four-time WTCC champion.
The Russian Lada has fortified its driver line-up with the 2012 World Champion Rob Huff and is eager to come off with flying colours with the new version of their racing Granta. James Thompson, another experienced British driver, and the young Russian pilot Mikhail Kozlovskiy will join Huff in the AvtoVAZ racing team.
Apart from Kozlovskiy, Nikolay Karamyshev, another Russian driver, will take part in the Russian WTCC round held at the Moscow Raceway. The pilot from Kursk is going to participate in the home round and a few other races behind the wheel of a SEAT León in the “junior” TC2 class (vehicles equipped according to the last season’s regulations).
The first 2014 WTCC race will be held in Morocco in the middle of April and there are only 100 days left till the Moscow Raceway week-end. The countdown has already begun and the tickets for the Russian round of the World Touring Car Championship will soon go on sale!
Preliminary 2014 WTCC driver line-up:
Citroën Racing (Citroën C-Elysée TC1): Sébastien Loeb /Yvan Muller / José María López
Honda (Honda Civic TC1): Tiago Monteiro / Gabriele Tarquini
Lada (Lada Granta TC1): Robert Huff/ Mikhail Kozlovskiy/James Thompson
Proteam Racing (Honda Civic TC1): Mehdi Bennani
Zengo Motorsport (Honda Civic TC1): Norbert Michelisz
ROAL (Chevrolet Cruze TC1): Tom Coronel / Tom Chilton
Münnich Motorsport (SEAT León TC2): Marc Basseng/René Münnich
Campos Racing (Chevrolet Cruze TC1): Hugo Valente/Dušan Borković
bamboo engineering (Chevrolet Cruze TC1): to be announced
Onyx (TC1): to be announced
According to www.moscowraceway.ru