The DTM has IMHO gone downhill in the last few years. It has turned into a 2 horse race, MB and Audi. With BMW joining it might spice things up, but I can hardly tell the difference between the makes now. Too much like Nascrap. WTCC and the BTCC are the best sports car racing around right now. Diverse makes and no cookie cutter body styles. You can actually tell what car is on track.....lol
World Touring Car Championship appears headed to U.S.
The World Touring Car Championship is on course to visit the United States in 2012.
WTCC boss Marcello Lotti revealed that he has penciled in a U.S. date as the series opener in March 2012. The event would form one half of a transatlantic double-header with the long-standing Brazilian fixture in Curitiba, which kicks off this year's series on March 20.
“There is some work to do,†said Lotti, “but I think we will be in the U.S. next year. It is what we want and what the manufacturers want."
Lotti admitted that there is no decision yet about whether to bring the WTCC field, which is largely made up of the South Korean-built Chevrolet Cruzes, BMW 320sis and Seat Leons, to the East or West Coast.
"The West Coast would be better in terms of reaching the public who buy our kind of cars," he said, "but the logistics on the East Coast would be easier."
Lotti said that he is working with the organizer of the Californian-based U.S. Touring Car Championship on a potential West Coast event.
"It is easier if you have a partner in a particular country," Lotti explained. "We are working with the Ali Arsham [who runs the USTCC], but also talking to other circuits and promoters."
New connections are being forged between the WTCC and the USTCC. WTCC-specification cars are allowed in the U.S. series, and the winner of this year's USTCC championship will receive a test in a BMW run by one of the WTCC's top privateer teams.
Lotti said the initiative "fits perfectly our plans of throwing a bridge between the world championship and national championships that share the same view of what touring-car racing is."
The USTCC, which is scheduled to take in seven dates at Sears Point, Thunderhill Raceway and Buttonwillow this year, is run for near-showroom specification sedans.
