Coming off a successful weekend in Sonoma, California, the official Chevrolet WTCC team — racing a trio of tuned Chevy Cruzen — did what it does best last Sunday at Suzuka, Japan: win.
Race 1
Race one saw a podium sweep by the three official Chevy drivers, with poll leader Alain Menu taking first, followed by Yvan Muller in second and Rob Huff in third.
Also of note is independent driver Alex MacDowall, who finished the race in fifth — the top spot among independent racers — at the wheel of a Bamboo Engineering Cruze.
Race 2
The second race had the Chevy WTCC team start in rows 4 and 5 on the grid. The team still managed to pass some competitors at a circuit known for challenging overtaking. Huff, Menu and Muller finished the race in 4th, 5th and 6th, respectively, while BMW driver Stefano D’ASTE took first and Pepe ORIOLA and Gabriele TARQUINI — both driving SEAT Leons — took second and third, respectively.
The Details
Chevy’s already won the Manufacturers’ championship: with 835 points, it is far ahead of second-place BMW (543) and SEAT (532). Now, all the attention turns to the battle for the Drivers’ crown between the Chevrolet drivers, who are the only ones still in the race for the title.
| Driver | Manufacturer | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Yvan Muller | Chevrolet | 345 |
| Rob Huff | Chevrolet | 345 |
| Alain Menu | Chevrolet | 307 |
| Gabrielle Tarquini | SEAT | 220 |
| Tom Coronel | BMW | 170 |
“We are very pleased with the weekend”, said Chevy WTCC Team Operations Manager Stuart Cowie. We mathematically made certain of the Constructors’ championship, took another triple podium and collected six finishes in the points. We couldn’t ask for more.”
“I‘m happy the three cars finished the weekend unscathed, which is important ahead of the following events”, Cowie added. “This is made even more important when you are so far from home and when you have your three drivers fighting for the Drivers’ title. They are managing this situation in the most professional way and I want to congratulate them for that.”
In addition, independent Cruze drivers Alex MacDowall, Michel Nykjær, and Rickard Rydell are in 9th (66 points), 15th (20 points), and 17th (14 points) respectively.
The tour has four more races until the end of the season, with the next round taking place on November fourth in Shanghai, China. The final round of the season will take place in Macau two weeks later. The last four races promise to be extremely closely-fought battles between the three Chevrolet Cruze drivers.
Meanwhile, we still don’t quite understand the reason behind Chevy’s decision to withdraw from WTCC racing for the next season. Perhaps winning has taken a toll on the brand’s increasing equity…
Comments
Meanwhile, Chevy is pulling out of factory WTCC after dominating the field with the Cruze every year.
Chevy need to get into GRC like Dodge just did with the Dart/ Travis Pastrana. Or WRC, but they need to get some North American races on their calendar.
When on Sunday salon Monday… about a ZL1 spec race series and bring back the International race of champions series IROC That will be a fun series to watch. And hell the ZL1 is already a race car..
win on sunday sell on monday.. sorry Siri is having issues along with me…..
I wonder if these cars have the fancy new charge controlling pistons like the Corvettes?
cool, i guess. GM has already proven themselves and dominated in WTCC. all i ask is: CAN WE FINALLY GET A REAL PERFORMANCE VERSION OF THE CRUZ GM?”