Van Lagen comments to Lada in WTCC

Yesterday two Lada’s suddenly appeared on the 2008 entry list of the World Touring Car Championship. The Lada’s entering the WTCC was a big surprise, not just for the fans, but for one of the drivers as well. Today Jaap van Lagen comments to his first season in the World Touring Car Championship.

Van Lagen, who won the 2006 Renault Megane Trophy, has also entered the Porsche Supercup this year. Next to that, he will race in the WTCC. “I met the team last year, when I had given them a course for three days”, Van Lagen said to RTL. “It was at Spa-Francorchamps, Zolder and Zandvoort”. The Russian Bears Motorsport team raced in the Dutch Supercar Challenge in 2007 and is based in the Dutch town Franeker.

“At the course we found out that they still had much to learn. I was three seconds a lap faster than the regular drivers”, Van Lagen goes on to say. “Last week they suddenly phoned me with the request to drive in WTCC”. It won’t be the first time Van Lagen will be driving a Touring Car. In 2005 he tested in a DTM car for Mücke Motorsport.

“I told them what I wanted to earn for driving for them, and they agreed to that. It was a big boost for me, because I needed money to race in the Porsche Supercup as well. That’s the series I want to be succesfull in this year.”

The Lada 110’s will be prepared by the team itself and will get no factory support. “That’s why I still want to race in the Porsche Supercup this year. I don’t want to just race in a car I know nothing about and from which I think it will be five seconds to slow at the start of the season”, Van Lagen says. “That’s frustrating.”

“The car will be quicker and quicker throughout the season. Chevrolet was at the back of the grid as well four years ago. Besides, the WTCC is a great championship, with great tracks. I’m already looking forward to Macau.”