Wilson Borgnino picks up fourth after late start

Argentinean driver Wilson Borgnino took fourth place in the FIA European Touring Car Cup Super 1600 class. This was despite a late start to the season in the brand new Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet Aveo touring car.

The Swiss team constructed their brand new Chevrolet Aveo S1600s to compete this year in both the FIA European Touring Car Cup as well as in the German touring car championship, the ADAC Procar Series.

Issues with suppliers meant they missed the first round of both championships, and an engine problem also saw Borgnino miss the races at the second round of the ETCC at the Slovakiaring, but strong results for the 20-year-old at Salzburg and at the season finale last weekend at Imola saw the Argentinean move up to fourth in the S1600 standings behind the three Ravenol Team Ford Fiestas of Kevin Krammes, Paolo Necchi and Ulrike Krafft.

The team had begun the season with two Russian drivers, Vadim Meshcheryakov and reigning Russian Touring Car champion Alexander Frolov, though Frolov left the team after Slovakia and Meshcheryakov after Salzburg.

The team recruited experienced World Touring Car and Superstars Series driver Diego Romanini for Imola, and the team’s two drivers worked well together at the Italian circuit.

“It was a good experience for Wilson, he could profit a lot from the experience of Diego,” said Maurer Team Principal Beat Maurer.

Though unfortunately a technical failure saw Romanini retire from race one, which wasn’t able to be resolved before the second race, whilst Borgnino finished second in both races behind local driver Paolo Necchi.

Borgnino, whose only previous race experience has been in his homeland of Argentina, with three second place finishes and a fourth at Austria and Imola, finished in joint fourth in the S1600 standings along with Luxembourg driver Gilles Bruckner on 29 points.