New art design for Alain Menu at Imola
Alain Menu will have a unique design on his Chevrolet Lacetti for the World Touring Car Championship race at Imola. The car is painted in yellow and black and the design is taken from the competition Chevrolet organized earlier called “Young, Creative, Chevrolet”. The contenders were from different design schools around the world. The winner was Adi Sumi from Slovenia and he was present in the UK-based workshops of RML when the design was done on the car.
The three Chevrolet-drivers are optimistic for the race at Imola. Alain Menu, who will drive the painted car, hopes to score the first podium in WTCC with an art car.
“Considering how competitive we were at Oschersleben with a heavy car I can only be optimistic for the Imola races, since I’ll be running just 40 kilograms. The objective therefore is to have two good races and hopefully finish on the podium. That would be great, particularly as my car will be the art car. I’m always in for something a bit out of the ordinary and the Chevrolet design competition was a great initiative to help create interest in the WTCC from quarters not necessarily familiar with racing. And if can finish on the podium with the art car it would be a first as well, as I don’t believe there has ever before been an art car which finished on the podium of a race, regardless of the championship,” said Menu.
Nicola Larini heads to his home race at Imola and is looking to score a win in Italy.
“As you can imagine, I feel extremely motivated for this first of two rounds in Italy. The form shown by the car in the last races has been excellent: I was impressed with the balance and the performance of the Lacetti in Oschersleben, a track that had not been too favorable to us in the past. The car performs and feels well and we have a good pace everywhere. Imola is definitely a circuit I like, even after the changes they introduced and which are aimed at making overtaking a little bit easier. On top, I will be relatively light in terms of ballast, so I’ll be really going for my first victory,” said Larini.
Rob Huff on the other hand carries a lot of penalty weight because of his results during the previous race at Oschersleben.
“It will be a challenge going to Imola. It will take us a few laps to get to know the track again as we haven’t been there since 2005 and they have changed the track a bit. The toughest part will be running with 70 kilos of success ballast, which is something I have never done before in my whole touring car career. So my aim is to qualify in the top ten and then finish the races in the points. If we can get away with four or five points, I will be very happy. Imola is a long, fast and undulating track, not necessarily what you want with a heavy car. The good thing though is that all the guys in front of me in the championship are running more or less the same weight. That said I will have to keep an eye on those behind me in the standings as well,” said Huff.
