Photo: ETCC Media

Aku Pellinen abandons ETCC Single-Make title charge

By

Finnish driver Aku Pellinen has withdrawn from the final round of the FIA European Touring Car Cup, which takes place next weekend at the Pergusa circuit on the Italian island of Sicily, even though the 21-year-old currently leads the Single-Make Trophy classification by five points.

The Finn has explained the reason for his withdrawal is purely budgetary, and is aiming for a full campaign in 2015, in which the SEAT León Cup Racer could join or replace the second generation León Supercopa.

“It was a difficult decision, because I know that it was possible to clinch the title, but we have a limited budget and for a small team like ours logistics are very difficult,” said Pellinen. “We thought about a lot and eventually decided that this was the wiser decision. Maybe next year we can do the whole season. I think the ETCC is very good for a driver like me who is aiming for WTCC.”

With double points, just as in Formula 1, now introduced for the final round, no title has been decided, but the Single-Make Trophy was one of the closest, with Pellinen just five points ahead of German driver Andreas Pfister, who in turn is four points clear of Russian driver Dmitry Bragin, who is one point ahead of compatriot Sergey Ryabov.

The Super 1600 class will host the closest battle, with Team LuxMotor’s Gilles Bruckner two points ahead of Ravenol Team SAN’s Ulrike Krafft with 46 points on offer in the final meeting.

Nikolay Karamyshev has dominated the TC2T class in his Campos Racing Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T, but theoretically in contention are Mat’o Homola in the Homola Motorsport BMW (20 points adrift), Campos team-mate Igor Skuz (30 points behind) and Borosun Otomotiv Motosport’s Aytac Biter (41 points).

Petr Fúlin, last year’s S2000 class champion and winner in the FIA World Touring Car Championship’s TC2T class in his only outing of the season in Slovakia, has a comfortable 34 point margin over his Krenek Motorsport team-mate Michael Matejovsky and seems on course to take a consecutive title.