2014 FIA Winter Touring Car Trophy Eurosport Review

2014 FIA Winter Touring Car Trophy Eurosport Review.
The 26th Edition Of The FIA Winter Touring Car Trophy Is Held In Africa For The First Time Ever When It’s Held At The Legendary Kyalami Circuit In South Africa, The Annual End Of Year Race Is A 55 Lap One Around The Circuit Just A Week Before Christmas And The New Year, The Race Has Entries From All Over The World And Many Different Manufactuers On The Grid, Either It’s A Works Or A Privateer Team.
Anyways, 2014 Saw The Arrival Of New Regulations, TC1 Cars Will Now Be Allowed To Race In The Winter Touring Car Trophy From This Year Onwards, And Next Year, We Will Be Seeing New Regulations Of Cars Racing Including NGTC, TC1, And The New TCR Spec Cars That Also Be Racing From Next Year Onwards, So That Means We Won’t Be Seeing Anymore Super Touring Or Super 2000 Spec Cars From Next Year.
Anyways, Here’s The Specification Of A TC1 Car, It’s A Modified Version Of A Super 2000 Spec Car That Races In The World Touring Car Championship, And Also This Year In The Imaginary World Touring Car Championship, It’s Build On A 2011 Generation Of Cars, It Has A 1.6 L Turbo Engine, And Was Accompanied By An Increase In The Power Output Of The Engine, Which Rose To 380 BHP, An Increase Of Between 50 And 60 BHP Depending On The Engine Being Used, The Size Of The Wheels Being Used Increased To 18", With MacPherson Strut Suspension Being Introduced To All Cars. The Dimensions Of The Cars Changed, With A Maximum Width Of 1,950 mm (77 in), And A 100 MM (3.9 In) Front Splitter. Changes To The Aerodynamic Package Allowed Teams To Use Flat Floors, And Introduce Single-Plane Rear Wings That Were Allowed, But To Be No Higher Than The Roof Of The Car, The Minimum Weight Of The Cars Was Reduced From 1,150 Kilograms (2,540 Pounds) To 1,100 Kilograms (2,400 Pounds).
Some Manufactuers Have Been Chosen To Have A Go Of These Regulations, Citroen Were First, They Have Entered All Their Drivers, Yvan Muller, Sebastien Loeb, Ma Qing Hua And Jose Maria Lopez At The Wheel Of Their C Elysee Which Is A Rebadged Version Of A Peugeot 301, Honda Have Entered 2 Civics Where Italian Gabriele Tarquini And Former Jordan Grand Prix Driver Tiago Montero, Lada Have Entered 3 Grantas With 2 Brits James Thompson And Rob Huff, And They’re Also Joined By Russian Driver Mikhail Kozlovskiy, ROAL Motorsport Have Entered 2 Chevrolet Cruzes With Tom Chilton And Tom Coronel, Zengő Motorsport Have Entered 2 Honda Civics With 2 Hungarian Drivers Norbert Michelisz
And Zsolt Baumgartner, Another Ex Formula 1 Driver, Spanish Team Campos Racing Have Also Entered Chevrolet Cruzes For This Outing, Hugo Valente, Pepe Oriola And  Dušan Borković, There Are 2 Morbidellis At Münnich Motorsport, Gianni Has Been Joined By Franco Who Races With Bikes In Moto GP, And They’re Joined By By René Münnich  At The Wheel Of A Chevrolet Cruze, Proteam Racing Have Entered A Single Honda Civic With Moroccan Driver Mehdi Bennani At The Wheel, And Finally The Last Team Entered With These Regulations Are Onyx Race Engineering, Running A Ford Fiesta WTCC TC1 With Tom Boardman, Diego Romanini And James Nash At The Wheel.
At Least There Are NGTC Cars From The BTCC On The Grid, Andrew Jordan Leading The Charge At Pirtek Racing In A Honda Civic, But His Main Targets Are The Hondas Of Matt Neal And Gordon Shedden Who Are At The Wheel Of The Honda Civic Tourer For Honda Yuasa Racing, Airwaves Racing Have Entered 2 Ford Focus’s With Mat Jackson And 2 Times BTCC Champion And 2008 FIA Winter Touring Car Trophy Winner Fabrizio Giovanardi, Team WSR Under The Name Of Ebay Motors Have Entered 3 BMW 125i’s With Colin Turkington, The 2 Times BTCC Champion, Rob Collard And Nick Foster, Ford Team Ecoboost Have Entered 2 Current Generation Mondeo NGTCs, Former West Surrey Racers Lee Brookes And Anthony Reid, But They Are Joined Ford Team Ecoboost Ireland Who Are Also Running A Pair Of Mondeos With Eoin Murray, Celtic Touring Car Champion, And Emmet O Brien, Then We See Other Manufactuers Like Audi, Toyota, Mazda, Opel, Skoda, Lada, Renault,  Kia, Hyundai, Peugeot, BMW, Honda, MG, Chevrolet, Proton And Volkswagen Who Have Also Entered Cars Either Works Or Privateer.
It May Be Hard To Say Goodbye To The Super 2000 Which Of Course Are Known As TC2 Cars, But Anyways, Either These Cars Either Have Turbo Or Normally Aspirated Engines,
Liqui Moly Team Engstler Have Entered 4 BMW 320 TCs With Franz Engstler, Pasquale Di Sabatino, Camilo Echevarría And Felipe De Souza, 2 Times IWTCC Champion Jordi Gene Has Joined Campos Racing For This Event At The Wheel Of A SEAT Leon, He’s Of Course Joined By Henry Kwong, Petr Fulín,  John Filippi, William Lok, Nikita Misiulia, Norbert Nagy And Michael Soong, Volvo Polestar Racing Have Entered 2 C30 DRIVes With Thed Bjork And Fredrik Ekblom At The Wheel, Chevrolet Have Entered A Pair Of Cruzes With Irish Singing And GoAnimate Sensation Eric Oates, Who’s Also Intrested With Other Stuff Including Touring Cars, And He’s Joined By Italian Legend Nicola Larini, Dacia Have Entered 3 Sanderos With GoAnimate Grounded Video Star Paulina Cucchiella, Top Gear Presenter James May, And Alain Prost’s Son, Nicolas.
And It’s Also Hard To Say Goodbye To The Super Tourers As Well, At Least Michael Bentwood And His Freedom Finance Team Have Made It On The Grid For Their Final Adventure In The FIA Winter Touring Car Trophy With The Mondeo, And The 5 Time IWTCC Champion And 2 Times Olympic Gold Medalist Will Be Joined By Luke Hines, Former Ferrari F1 Driver Rubens Barrichello And Stig Blomqvist, Not All Super Touring Cars Will Have Normally Aspirated Engines, But Also Some Will Have Turbo 4 Cylinder Engines As Well, There Will Be Ford Mondeos On This Super Touring Grid, Ford Team Benetton, Borbet, Bastos And Fina Have Also Entered Mondeos, And It Was Also Great To See John Cleland Back Racing In His Vauxhall Vectra.
The Entries Have Been Lined Up, Now Let’s Get To The Action In Qualifying, And It Was Yvan Muller Who Was Fastest In Qualifying, And Would Start The Race On Pole Position, And He’ll Be Joined At The Front By His Team Mate Jose Maria Lopez, Matt Neal Lined Up 3rd In First Of The Hondas, Ahead Of Sebastien Loeb’s Citroen, Michael Bentwood Would Have To Settle For 12th On The Grid Behind His Rivals Of The IWTCC, Alain Menu In The First Of The VW CCs, 11th, And Jordi Gene In The First Of The SEATs In 10th, Jason Plato Will Line Up 13th In The First Of The MGs, While A Crash In Qualifying Will See Luke Hines Lining Down In 33rd Place, As The Race Started, Muller Makes A Great Start From The Front Leading Going In The First Corner At Total, While Turkington Is Right Behind Neal And Passing Loeb Into 4th, While At The Back, There Was Chaos, As Adam Morgan, Rob Austin, Robb Holland And Chris Stockton All Collided At Nashua, And Which It Brought Out The Safety Car, A Few Laps Later And The Safety Car Was In As Muller Led From Lopez, Neal, Turkington, Loeb, Menu, Plato, Collard, Bentwood, Tarquini And Chilton, Shane Van Gisbergen Was Out On Lap 7 Thanks To Transmission Problems In His Holden Cruze WTCC, While Eric Oates Passes Stuart Oliver’s Lada To Take 21st Place, And Then He Passed Mat Jackson’s NGTC Focus To Take 20th, The Irishman Is Flying In His Works Chevrolet Cruze WTCC, Team Mate Nicola Larini Is In Combat With Gordon Shedden And Tries To Take 26th Place From The Honda Civic Tourer, While Michael Bentwood Is Flying Through The Field From 12th On The Grid, And Is Chasing Collard’s NGTC BMW For 7th, The Mondeo Super Tourer Has Much Better Pace Than The Newer Machine, But Collard Isn’t Going To Back Him Off, Lap 20, And Freddy Loix Retires His Ford Team Benetton Mondeo With Engine Problems While He Was Running 28th, While Fredrik Ekblom Was Lucky To Stay On Track After Going Off The Gravel Trap At Yellow Pages On Lap 22 In His Volvo C30 DRIVe, Just A Few Laps Later, Lopez’s Race Is Over, The Citroen’s Engine Letting Go On The Start Finish Straight, He Was Running 2nd To Muller In This Race, But Now It Ends On The Sidelines, Luke Hines Is Dashing Through The Field, He’s Now Up To 13th Place And Passing Tom Coronel’s Cruze WTCC TC1 At Total On Lap 27, Both Freedom Finance Super Touring Spec Ford Mondeo Are Doing Absolutely Well On Their Last FIA Winter Touring Car Trophy Meeting, But It’s All Sad News At Haima, He Zi Xian Retiring With Broken Suspension On Lap 32, Matt Neal Is Now On The Tail Of Yvan Muller In The Battle For The Lead, And As The Sun Was Going Down, It Was Getting Very Close In This Race, Luke Hines Is Now Behind Tom Chilton’s Chevrolet Cruze For 11th, They May Have Been Fighting In The Championship In The IWTCC With Michael Bentwood And Jordi Gene, But It’s Not Going To Be A Repeat Of Itself Today, Earlier Hines Over Took Gene For 12th At Westbank On Lap 34, And Was Still Battling Away Through The Field Despite A Poor Qualifying Session, A Few Laps Later, Bentwood Has Passed Collard At Total, And Is Now Up To 7th Place, But Emmet O Brien Has Spun Out Of The Race At Westbank On Lap 37, And This Brought Out The Yellow Flags, But At Least His Car Was Far From The Track, Michael Bentwood Has Gained Another Place, He Now Passes Jason Plato’s MG And To Take 6th Place, And Now He’s Chasing His Rival Alain Menu’s Volkswagen CC For 5th, With Half The Race Distance Left, Can Michael Overtake The Swiss Driver?, Coronel Stops To The Middle Of The Track On Lap 44, Thanks To A Clutch Failure, No One Was Going To Catch This Man, On The Final Lap, Yvan Muller Was Heading To Victory, And Only Is 2nd Victory In The FIA Winter Touring Car Trophy, And First For Citroen, Yvan Takes The Victory, With Matt Neal Finishing 2nd In His Honda, And Reigning BTCC Champion Colin Turkington Taking 3rd In His BMW, Sebastien Loeb Managed To Finish 4th In His Citroen, Ahead Of Alain Menu And Michael Bentwood, With Jason Plato Finishing 6th.
Victory For Yvan Muller Also Helps France Win The Nations Cup Over Great Britain In 2nd And Italy Finishing 3rd, And Honda Win The Manufactuers Cup Over Citroen  In 2nd, And Honda 3rd.
== Results ==
=== Drivers' standings ===
1 Yvan Muller, 40 Pts.
2 Matt Neal, 30 Pts.
3 Colin Turkington, 24 Pts.
=== Nations' standings ===
1 France, 53 Pts.
2 Great Britain, 44 Pts.
3  Italy, 31 Pts.
Manufacturers' standings
1 Honda, 54 Pts.
2 Citroen, 48 Pts.
3 BMW, 20 Pts.
4 Ford, 16 Pts.
5 Chevrolet, 16 Pts.
6 Volvo, 6 Pts.
And So Also Draws The End Of An Era For Both Super Touring And Super 2000 Spec Cars, Michael Bentwood Was The First Of The Super Touring Cars, But Would Finish In A Disappointed 5th Place, And Thed Bjork Was The First Of The Super 2000 Cars To Cross The Line In 16th Place In His Volvo, Next Year Will See The New Regulation Of Cars Joining The Grid, That Would Be The TCR Cars, We Will See If The NGTC And TC1 Cars Could Match The Pace Of The TCR Cars When The FIA Winter Touring Car Trophy Returns To The Middle East And The Losail International Circuit In Qatar Next December, We All Hoped You Enjoyed This Review Of The 2014 FIA Winter Touring Car Trophy, But Until Then, It’s Goodbye For Now.
Category:FIA Winter Touring Car Trophy Season Reviews