Yokohama ITCC Launch their 2013 Series!
March 13, 2013 by Leo Nulty
ITCC's Brian Sexton had Orla Miller on hand to help launch the 2013 Championship
Last Friday, in the Naas Court Hotel (fast becoming THE venue for Motorsport launches), The Irish Touring Car Championship officially launched their 2013 campaign and also made some interesting announcements.
They announced that Yokohama would continue to partner the championship this year with Murray Motorsport as the official tyre supplier. Benefits for competitors include discounted tyres, a subsidised entry fee of just €25 (yes, twenty five euro!!) for the two Bishopscourt rounds, and discounts from associated sponsors.
Anthony Levingston is the official photographer for the championship, with Paul Healy, the Irish Autosport correspondant, penning the official race reports. There is also an exciting opportunity for a driver from both the Super Touring and Production class to win a VIP trip to Circuito da Boavista, Porto, Portugal to see a round of the WTCC, where they will get a chance to meet the drivers and teams. This amazing mid season prize will be up for grabs to registered drivers who have started in the first 6 rounds. Winning names will be pulled from a hat at the end of round 6 in Mondello Park
On March 27th at the Mondello Park test day- a Yokohama tyre engineer will be there to answer any questions you may have. The organisers encourage all drivers to ask the engineer any questions they may have as they are there to help.
ITCC will run 3 classes in 2013
Dave O’Brien’s E46 is still in build- but already looks awesome!
The Main Class Super Touring will run on Yokohama A005 Slick and the A006 wet weather tyres. With new drivers (Dave O’Brien, Kevin Doran and Gary Cardiff) and a return of a few other drivers from previous seasons it’s shaping up well. The big question is can anyone challenge the BMWs. Reigning champion Phil Brennan & Erik Holstein will be back in their E36 M3s but will be joined by former RT2000 star Dave O’Brien in his self built WTCC style E46 M3. The theory is that a well sorted Honda should be able to trouble the BMWs, on the National Circuit at least- but who is going to step up to the plate?! Series Organiser Brian Sexton- is hard at work with his latest project. Predictably, it is neither a Honda nor a BMW, but instead a Honda powered Lexus- and the former Time Attack champion is bullish about his chances. If the car is right, he certainly won’t be far away!
Production Class (Touring) will continue to run on the Yokohama A048 tyres. With last year’s
Aimee Kershaw should be a frontrunner in the Touring Class
champion John Greaney moving on to race in the UK, the seat is open for the next competition winner of the Race2Race competition. With the return of Ian Radford, Aimee Kershaw, David Bailey and Anthony Murtagh with new and rebuilt cars along with a few newcomers such as Rob Brennan to the class it will be close and exciting as usual.
2013 sees the introduction of the ITCC Stockhatch Class for both 16valve and 8valve cars running on the 14″ Yokohama A048 tyres, this will be run over 8 races at 4 weekends in Mondello Park. This should be an exciting addition to the ITCC grid after a strong showing from Graeme Colfer at the 2012 Leinster Trophy rounds mixing it up with the production class and has also received plenty of interest from top names in the rallycross stockhatch class such as Andrew Twomey, Eddie Peterson in the 16valves. Ian Beatty and Noel O’Brien in the 8valve 205s, so it should be very interesting.
Official YOKOHAMA ITCC Clothing will be supplied by B-Design for competitors and fans and can be purchased by contacting the organisers via www.itcc.ie
