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Seat going for WTCC

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SEAT Sport is a company with 140 employees, who focus exclusively on competition driving. In 2005, they will face the challenge of the newly created FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) and SEAT Sport’s managing director, Jaime Puig, provides some insight into the expectations for the upcoming season.

SEAT Sport’s merit for this championship became evident after the excellent string of results achieved last season, culminating with Rickard Rydell’s victory at Oschersleben. What were your thoughts during that race? “There were some terrifying moments, because after a few laps it seemed possible, but then it came down to the last four, three, two laps until finally he came in first over the line and we all broke out cheering. I have fond memories of all the people that believed in us and lent us their support. We clearly had a season filled with great satisfaction, but taking podiums and pole positions isn’t the same as winning, and that’s the main objective in any competition. The win at Oschersleben demonstrated the capacity of the entire SEAT Sport team, and stands for all the efforts put in, but at the same time signalled the first step toward more ambitious goals.”

That brings us to SEAT Sport’s current plans. “We are going to concentrate on the WTCC, and then come the SEAT Cupra Challenges in different countries – Spain, Germany, Turkey and the UK. Further priorities are the national championships, like the BTCC in the UK, and maintaining our level of customer service, to both Group N and GT and any other that arises during the season.

SEAT Sport in Spain always lends assistance to importers that request help or technical support, but they are the ones who, depending on their capacity, must request what they need of us. I’m sure we will continue in Denmark and Finland, but we don’t know what’s going to happen in Sweden.

The Supercopa is still linked with the organisational structure of the Spanish GT Championship, except one meeting that will be run alongside the WTCC in Valencia. We believe it is important, especially for the participants, to race at the same meeting as the World Championship. We may introduce a few changes to the sporting aspect, but we’ll announce that when the time comes. 2005 will also be an important year for preparation work on the new models going into competition – this year at the WTCC, and the new model in 2006 for the Supercopa challenges. That means a hectic development schedule for this year.