Photo: FIA media

Chevrolet going for more wins at Valencia

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The Chevrolet team will travel without any expectations to Valencia, where the next round of the World Touring Car Championship will be held. Even though they have won the last four races and have won both races at Valencia last year, the Cruze still has to prove itself on a traditional track in Europe.

Last year, both Rob Huff and Alain Menu won a race at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

“We had a fantastic result in Valencia last year and I hope the Cruze can follow the performance of the Lacetti as it has done on street circuits, although everybody believes it is going to be difficult to repeat the extraordinary results of Marrakech and Pau”, Rob Huff said.

So far the season has been much better for Huff as last year. He’s only 13 points behind in the championship battle and has led the most laps. “I am in a better position than I was last year at the same point in the season. While winning races whenever possible remains my objective, I know I need to be sensible and pick up as many points as possible at every race”.

Despite the two victories last year at Valencia, circumstances this year will be very different.

“Valencia was very successful for us last year but we were light. With the most recent decisions from the FIA bureau, I expect our Spanish competitors to be very quick there”, Alain Menu said.

Even though the team tested a lot at Valencia over the winter, Nicola Larini doesn’t think it will be a big help to them. “I don’t think the references gathered then will be as useful, because things have changed: track conditions, car evolution, weight compensation, etc. but the good thing is we do have reference to start from”.

One of the references they have to work with is the almost unchanged car from Pau. “We are on a very short turn-around time, which only allows to rebuild and re-prepare the cars, introduce very minor modifications and up-dates, with no testing or development work”, team manager Mark Busfield comments.

“Our main task will be to prepare the spare car for Nic, as his race car was badly damaged in Pau and we need a little more time to rebuild it properly. This Saturday, Nic and Rob will shake-down the three cars at Millbrook and then we will be off to Spain, hoping to come back with as many points as possible”.