Dusan Borkovic joins Campos test in Barcelona

Serbian driver Dusan Borkovic has joined his Campos Racing team in Barcelona as the team continue testing, with the Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 car of Hugo Valente still in Europe before it gets flown out to Beijing for the next round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship in October.

Valente tested the car two weeks ago, and Slovakian ETCC driver Mat’o Homola had a chance to test the car last week. Borkovic has now become the latest driver to join the team’s test programme, while Borkovic’s own car is en route to China from the previous meeting in Argentina by ferry.

“After a month and a half I was back in a Chevy and I feel great. We made a few changes and I hope the results will be noticeable in the Beijing round,” said Borkovic. “I am looking forward to the Asian rounds and hope I will a be able to finish the remaining eight races without problems,” he added.

The Serbian was excluded from the most recent round of the Championship in Argentina after originally being classified eighth after his Chevrolet RML Cruze failed the ride height test. The team have appealed the penalty as they believe the failure was due to accident damage, which is due to be heard at the end of this month.

The test will likely be the final test for Borkovic until 2015, with the cars about to begin their two month residency in Asia for the meetings in China, Japan and Macau, before they are transported back to Europe, but won’t arrive back until January.

“This is not an issue for factory teams because they have spare cars for tests,” said Borkovic. “Private drivers like me don’t have that luxury. That is one of the reasons for the Independents’ Trophy returning next season. That means that unlike this year, next season private drivers and teams will compete along with factory teams in the TC1 class, but as well as the overall standings they will compete for points and separate podiums,” he added.