James Thompson gets second call up at Münnich for Morocco

British driver James Thompson will again substitute for René Münnich at the next round of the World Touring Car Championship at Marrakech on May 8th, driving the German’s Chevrolet RML Cruze at the African street circuit, while Münnich himself will be on World Rallycross Championship duties in Hockenheim.

Thompson was asked to take over at Münnich Motorsport just a week before the Slovakian round of the WTCC earlier this the month by team manager Dominik Greiner, using the weekend to effectively learn the Chevrolet Cruze, a car he’d never raced before, starring in free practice but troubles in qualifying put him out of position to score points on race day.

Thompson’s engineer of choice Marco Calovolo was also working with the Münnich team during last weekend’s races at the Hungaroring, when Münnich took his third career points finish in the slippery conditions, however with the next WTCC weekend clashing with the British Touring Car Championship round at Thruxton, Calovolo will be unavailable to re-partner with Thompson due to his commitments with the Ciceley Racing Mercedes team in the UK.

“James is a very good driver and a legend with four WTCC wins,” said Greiner. “He did well in Slovakia for what was his first race in 12 months, his first race with our team and his first time in the Chevrolet. He was P5 in Free Practice 2 and was really unlucky not to progress further in qualifying. With René facing another calendar clash it made perfect sense to give James another chance. Although the objective will be to bring the car back in one piece on what is partly a street circuit after all, he will be able to directly on full power because he knows the potential of the car now.”