INTERACTIVE LIVE WEB CONFERENCE FROM CURITIBA

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INTERACTIVE LIVE WEB CONFERENCE FROM CURITIBA

Three Days Of Testing Ahead Of Brazilian Debut

ZÜRICH / WELLINGBOROUGH, June 23rd, 2006 – When the 2006 World Touring Car Championship visits the Brazilian race track of Curitiba for the first time next weekend, Chevrolet will once again lead the way when it comes to informing the world. Started last season, Chevrolet is now making it a tradition to have daily live web conference from the so-called “fly-away” events in Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and Macau. Media not attending these races can still ask their questions to drivers and team management via live satellite uplinks, as can race fans from all over the world.

Chevrolet Europe’s Motorsport Manager, Eric Nève explained: “Obviously, when you’re racing in all four corners of the globe, it becomes more difficult for people to follow what’s going on and to have direct access to the team and drivers. This is why we have come up with the live web conferences. The WTCC is a Championship with easy and friendly access for fans and we want to keep this aspect as it perfectly fits to Chevrolet. Between the live TV-coverage and our live Q&A sessions, media and fans alike will be able to get the complete picture of Chevrolet’s WTCC performance.”

To gain direct access to the web conference, go to

http://www.chevrolet-webconference.com/ ... /curitiba/ or to www.chevroleteurope.com and click on the flash button.

The live web conferences are on Friday, June 30th at 4.00pm CET; on Saturday, July 1st at 9.30pm CET and on Sunday, July 2nd at 9.30pm CET. Questions can be put forward from today onwards.

Since the previous round at Oschersleben, the RML team has been quite busy. “We spent three days testing at Pembrey with our new test car, Alain menu doing all the driving,” Team manager, Mark Busfield explained. “We managed to get three full days of running under our belts, working on suspension revisions as well as doing a lot of tyre testing.”

As usual, fly-away races have their on logistical particularities. “Alain’s car was rebuilt after his Oschersleben shunt and will be flown to Brazil this weekend, while the other cars have arrived by ship and will require to be prepped on site,” Busfield said.

“It will be a challenge for all us,” Nicola Larini said. “After all we only have one and a half hours to find a set-up for qualifying and the race on a track none of us has ever been to, except maybe Augusto (Farfus). I think we can have a good shot at qualifying in the top ten, and then go for a podium finish in either race. It will be difficult, but we know from the last race that it can be done.”

DIRECT CONFERENCE LINK FOR MEDIA WEBSITE USE

Media operating their own websites are welcome to download the link to the web conference from http://www.bpinteractive.de/wtcc_countdown/. Subscribers or viewers of these websites can then directly access the web conference home page by clicking on the countdown logo.

CURITIBA WTCC SCHEDULE (All times local = CET minus 5 hours)

Saturday July 1st

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


Sunday July 2nd

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)

13.15-13.40 (18.15-18.40 CET) WTCC Race 2 (14 laps = 51.730 km)


The races will be broadcasted on Eurosport, as well as on www.fiawtcc.com . On Eurosport, a 30-minut round up of qualifying and race 1 airs at 12.45 (17.45 CET) immediately followed the live coverage of Race 2.

HANDICAP WEIGHTS FOR CURITIBA


1. D Müller, +70kgs; 2. A Priaulx, +65kgs; 3. J Müller, +60kgs; 4. R Rydell, +55kgs; 5. J Thompson +55kgs; 6. Y Muller, +55kgs; 7. G Tarquini, +40kgs; 8. A Farfus, +40kgs; 9. A Menu, +15kgs; 10. P Tering, +10kgs; 11. J Gené, +5kgs.


POINTS STANDINGS AFTER RACE 8 OF 20

Drivers: 1. A Priaulx (BMW), 33pts; 2. Y Muller (SEAT) 33; 3. D Müller (BMW) 32; 4. J Thompson (SEAT) 32; 5. R Rydell (SEAT) 31; 10. A Menu (Chevrolet) 18 ;… 12ex. A Balzan (Alfa Romeo) and R Huff (Chevrolet) 5; 14. N Larini (Chevrolet) 3 ;...

Manufacturers : 1. BMW, 103pts; 2. SEAT, 100; 3. Chevrolet, 55; 4. Alfa Romeo 54.


CHEVROLET RACING AROUND THE GLOBE

In the German ADAC Procar Serie, Vincent Radermecker has now won five of the nine races run so far. At the notorious Nürburgring Nordschleife, the Belgian finished ahead of former leader Mathias Schläppi, enabling the Chevrolet driver to take the lead in the Championship by 2 points. Team-mate Rainer Bastuck finished third and moves up to fourth in the point standings. More information can be found on www.top10sport.de.

In the Nextel NASCAR Cup, Chevrolet driver, Jimmie Johnson leads the point standings. The rookie Denny Hamlin upset the apple cart at Pocono by scoring his first pole position and race win in his Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet. Although 16 races have already been run, the championship is not yet at the halfway mark. More information on Chevrolet NASCAR programme can be found on www.nascar.com.

Further South, in Argentina, Chevrolet Astra driver, Matias Rossi leads by four units, after round five in San Juan, where Martin Basso, his toughest opponent, won the race. More information can be found on http://www.tc2000.com.ar.