Alex MacDowall targeting a renewed charge in the USA

22-year-old Alex MacDowall hopes to turn his challenge for the 2013 Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy around next weekend at Sonoma Raceway in California, and is also hoping for an overall race win during the final eight races of the 2013 World Touring Car Championship season.

MacDowall sits 41 points behind current leader Michel Nykjaer in the Yokohama Trophy, with 112 points remaining from the final four race meetings, and is chasing his first win in the class since the third weekend of the Championship back in Slovakia.

“Hopefully the visit to America should be the same as last season,” said MacDowall. “Sonoma was a good event for us, the Chevy worked well there so we just need to draw on that experience, try and be a step ahead. I really think an outright podium is do-able but we need some more Independents’ Trophy wins just to close down that gap in the championship.”

MacDowell is also in pursuit of his first race win in his sophomore season in the WTCC, a feat already achieved by his bamboo-engineering team-mate James Nash in Austria and Porto, and with Nykjaer having taken three wins in the Nika Racing Chevrolet Cruze.

“Although we’re in the last part of the season, there are still a lot of points up for grabs and I really want to try and get that first overall win,” he added. “Sonoma is probably the best track we go to, it’s a bit like a cross between Knockhill and Oulton Park in the UK – a real up and down circuit. We haven’t had lady luck on our side so far this year, but I’m confident in the car and my own ability.”