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World Touring Car Championship

Category	Touring cars
Country or region	International
Inaugural season	1987
Constructors	4
Drivers' champion	Gabriele Tarquini
Makes' champion	SEAT
Official website	fiawtcc.com
Current season

The FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) is an international Touring Car championship organised by the FIA.

Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Champions 2.1 Independents' Trophy winners 3 FIA World Touring Car Cup winners 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[-] History

The first WTCC, which was open to Group A Touring Cars, was held in 1987 concurrent to the long-running European Touring Car Championship (ETCC). Additional rounds were held outside Europe at Bathurst in Australia, Calder Park Raceway in Australia (using both the road course and the then newly constructed Thunderdome), Wellington in New Zealand and Mount Fuji in Japan. The Drivers Championship was won by Roberto Ravaglia in a BMW M3 and the Entrants Championship was won by the Eggenberger Texaco Ford No 7 entry, which was a Ford Sierra. The WTCC lasted only one year and was a victim of its own success - the FIA feared it would take money away from Formula 1 and stopped sanctioning the Championship^{[citation needed]}.
In 1993, with the high popularity of the Supertouring category, the FIA hosted the FIA World Touring Car Cup - an annual event for touring car drivers hailing from national championships all over the world. The 1993 race at Monza was won by Paul Radisich, at the wheel of a Ford Mondeo with no manufacturer title awarded. The race was run for two more years, (won by Paul Radisich again in 1994 at Donington Park in a Ford Mondeo, manufacturer title went to BMW, and Frank Biela in 1995 at Paul Ricard in an Audi A4 Quattro, and manufacturer title went to Audi). A similar event was planned for 1996 at the A1 Ring, Austria, but was cancelled due to a low number of provisional entries (10 cars). It was never brought back thereafter.
In 2001, the ETCC was resumed with support from the FIA. At the request of interested manufacturers, it was changed to the current WTCC beginning with the 2005 season, and is now considered the third most important FIA championship after Formula One and the World Rally Championship.
The series has had some setbacks for the 2010 season, as Seat and Lada have withdrawn as works teams, although Seat Sport will offer technical support to teams using Seat Leon TDI's. This leaves Chevrolet and BMW as the only 'full' works teams in the 2010 season.^{[citation needed]} It features compact and midsize cars based on Group N rules, yet modified to Super 2000 or Diesel 2000 regulations, an intermediate level between the slightly modified Super Production cars and the extinct Supertouring class.
Following the trend of recent FIA rules, cost control is a major theme in the technical regulation. Engines are limited to 2000 cc. Many technologies that have featured in production cars are not allowed, including variable valve timing, variable intake geometry, ABS brakes and traction control system.
In 2008 it was the first time a FIA sanctioned world championship, in any category, was won by a diesel powered racing car: the SEAT León TDI.
Italian Gabriele Tarquini is the current series champion, winning the second in-a-row WTCC drivers' title for Spanish manufacturer SEAT, continung SEAT's dominance in the WTCC and held since 2008 in both drivers' as well as manufacturers' championships.
The series are based all around the world (with races in Great Britain, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Morocco and Macau with former races in Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands and Turkey when it was a European based sport)

[-] Champions

	WTCC Drivers' Champions				WTCC Entrants' Champions
Year	Driver	Team	Car		Manufacturer	Car
1987	Roberto Ravaglia	Schnitzer Motorsport	BMW M3		Eggenberger Racing No. 7	Ford Sierra RS Cosworth Ford Sierra RS 500
	WTCC Drivers' Champions				WTCC Manufacturers' Champions
Year	Driver	Team	Car		Manufacturer	Car
2005	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team UK	BMW 320i		BMW	BMW 320i
2006	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team UK	BMW 320si		BMW	BMW 320si
2007	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team UK	BMW 320si		BMW	BMW 320si
2008	Yvan Muller	SEAT Sport	SEAT León TDI		SEAT	SEAT León TDI
2009	Gabriele Tarquini	SEAT Sport	SEAT León TDI		SEAT	SEAT León TDI

[-] Independents' Trophy winners

	WTCC Independents' Trophy winners
Year	Driver	Team	Car
2005	Marc Hennerici	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320i
2006	Tom Coronel	GR Asia	SEAT León
2007	Stefano D'Aste	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320si
2008	Sergio Hernández	Proteam Motorsport	BMW 320si
2009	Tom Coronel	SUNRED Engineering	SEAT León 2.0 TFSI

[-] FIA World Touring Car Cup winners

	FIA World Touring Car Cup (1993–1995)
Year	Winning driver	Winning car	Winning manufacturer	Track
1993	Paul Radisich	Ford Mondeo	BMW	Monza
1994	Paul Radisich	Ford Mondeo	Ford Motor Company	Donington Park
1995	Frank Biela	Audi A4 quattro	Audi	Paul Ricard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the video game, known as World Touring Car Championship in Japan, see TOCA World Touring Cars