page_title: Wiechers-Sport
section_title: BMW 320 TC (2011–)
hierarchical_section_title: Wiechers-Sport / World Touring Car Championship / BMW 320 TC (2011–)
caption_attribution_description: World Touring Car Championship 2012 Race of Japan: Stefano D'Aste leads the Race 2
context_page_description: Wiechers-Sport is a German auto racing team which is based in Nienburg. The team was first established in 1999, competing in German touring cars. The team currently competes in the World Touring Car Championship.
context_section_description: Wiechers switched to the BMW 320 TC for the 2011 season, using the new 1.6 litre turbocharged engine with former SEAT León Eurocup racer and WTCC debutant Urs Sonderegger at the wheel. The team started their season at the Race of Belgium after they tested the new car. Sonderegger sustained minor injuries in the second practice session for the Race of Hungary and missed the rest of the weekend. The team returned to action in the Czech Republic but Sonderegger left the team after the event having failed to be competitive, his replacement for the Race of Portugal was the team's former driver Stefano D'Aste. D'Aste finished tenth in the first part of qualifying to secure the reversed grid pole position on his return to the championship. D'Aste led three laps of race two before he started to drop down the field, eventually finishing eleventh. D'Aste was unavailable for the Race of UK due to commitments in the GT4 European Cup, his replacement for the round was Scandinavian Touring Car Championship driver Colin Turkington. Turkington was fifth in qualifying and therefore the quickest independent driver. The team then had an eventful first race as Turkington clashed with Tarquini at the Craner Curves and dropped down to tenth, he then managed to get back to ninth place before locking up on lap seven and rejoined the track in sixteenth place. He finished the first race in ninth place and then scored another point in race two to finish tenth. D'Aste returned for the Race of Germany where he took the independent victory in both races. Wiechers-Sport finished the season sixth in the teams' trophy and Turkington was their best placed driver in the overall drivers' championship in 13th place.
  The team returned for 2012 running a BMW for D'Aste. D'Aste finished fifth in race two of the season opener to take the independents' victory, he left the round at the top of the Yokohama Drivers' Trophy tied on points with Pepe Oriola and Alex MacDowall. D'Aste started from pole position for race two at the Race of Spain and led until lap seven until running wide allowing Alain Menu to take the lead. The leading pair then hit oil and D'Aste dropped down to his eventual finishing position of third. Despite his podium finish, D'Aste lost the lead of the independents' trophy to Tuenti Racing Team's Oriola. D'Aste started on the reversed grid pole again at the Race of Slovakia and maintained his lead at the start before running wide and losing places. During race two of the Race of Hungary, D'Aste spent the second half of the race behind the factory Chevrolet of Yvan Muller. D'Aste finished eighth after Muller ran wide on the final lap. D'Aste took his and the team's first win in race two of the Race of Austria in a race plagued with tyre issues. D'Aste was running fourth on the final lap when race leader Muller went off with the puncture. Robert Huff inherited the lead but then got a puncture at the final corner, second placed Tom Coronel tried to overtake up the inside while D'Aste pulled off a move around the outside to take the win. A last lap coming together with Franz Engstler in the first race at the Race of Brazil landed D'Aste with a 30–second penalty after the race, dropping his to seventeenth. He finished thirteenth in race two in what had been a difficult weekend for the team. The team had mixed fortunes at the Race of the United States, D'Aste was one of a number of drivers to be caught out by a first lap pileup in race one. He then started on pole position for race two before spinning out of the lead halfway around the first lap. D'Aste took his third reversed grid pole of the year at the Race of Japan and led from lights to flag to claim Wiechers–Sports' second win of the season. D'Aste claimed another podium result by finishing third at the Race of China in race one. He ran as high as second in race two and eventually took the independents' victory despite the BMW's drivers' door hanging loose. D'Aste was in with a chance of securing the independent drivers' title going into the final round of the season. He could only manage eleven
caption: Stefano D'Aste took the team's first two overall victories in 2012.
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