40,000 EUR incentive for Yokohama Trophy competitors

Drivers who take part in the World Touring Car Championship’s Yokohama Trophy, now reserved for cars competing in the TC2 class (cars compliant with the regulations used during 2011-2013), will get a 40,000 EUR starting bonus if entered for the full season.

The WTCC will allow cars competing to different sets of regulations for only the second time in its history this year, after allowing cars which conformed to the 2010 Super 2000 regulations in the 2011 season, which was then called the Jay-Ten Trophy.

The performance gap between TC1 and TC2 will be far greater however, than that between the 2010 and 2011 specification cars (now known as TC3 and TC2 respectively), with the new TC1 cars up to 50kg lighter, with advanced racing suspension and an additional 50+bhp available to them.

The two independent German teams, Wiechers-Sport and Liqui Moly Team Engstler, are expected to continue to field their BMW 320 TCs this season in the TC2 class, with no budget available to make the upgrade to the high-cost TC1 cars at present, while Campos Racing and Special Tuning Racing are expected to field a number of SEAT León WTCCs in the class.

Yokohama, the tyre partner for the Championship since 2006, will continue to sponsor the Trophy, and it’s now been confirmed that full season entrants will receive 40,000 EUR as a start-up incentive.

The amount of prize money on offer for the 2014 season has not yet been confirmed, but in 2013 the total for the season on offer from the Japanese tyre manufacturer was 480,000 EUR, with 6,000 EUR the prize on offer for winning each race, dropping to 1,000 EUR for the sixth placed driver. It’s possible that value maybe reduced in-line with the new entry incentive on offer.