Honda TC1 misses Norschleife debut due to race cancellation

The Castrol Honda World Touring Car team missed the chance to take the Honda Civic TC1 racing at the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife this weekend after the race was cancelled due to heavy fog this weekend.

Fog has also disrupted the DTM this weekend at the Lausitzring on the other side of the country, however with the VLN race scheduled on the Sunday, the conditions forced the complete cancellation of the race, which Honda had entered their TC1-spec test car in order to prepare for next year’s WTCC race.

The car was entered in the SPX class, and set a time of 8:58.374 around the track to qualify in 31st position behind a field of GT3 specification Porsches, Audis and Mercedes.

“We took advantage of the time we did spend on track to collect valuable information and the team is very pleased with the assessment we have made about the behaviour of the car,” said Tiago Monteiro. “Sure, it would have been important to evaluate this data in the race, but it was impossible. We still leave here better prepared for next year when the WTCC will run on the Nordschleife. I cannot wait to return to this circuit.”

Monteiro’s team-mate, and on this occasion co-driver, Gabriele Tarquini, added:
“I have now done 21 laps, and I can say I know it by 65-70%. It’s really a challenging track, very fast, with always changing conditions because of the weather, the surface, the bumps… Here, you really have to change your mind set. In a typical WTCC race, you are at the limit from the very start to the very end, here you cannot race at 100%, you need to allow yourself a margin to cope with small mistakes and the unpredictable.”