in briEF - Mundo Motorizado

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WTCC
zengo’s CIVICs
World Touring Car team Zengo Motorsport will run
a pair of JAS-built Honda Civic WTCCs this year.
Reigning Yokohama Drivers Trophy champion
Norbert Michelisz will drive one of the cars.
WTCC
Solberg open to WTCC switch
Rally ace keen to resume rivalry with Sebastien Loeb in circuit racing, but admits rallycross interest
Petter Solberg could be set to
renew his rivalry with Sebastien
Loeb on the race circuits in the
World Touring Car Championship.
The Norwegian has been offered a
drive in the series and admits one of
the main reasons he is considering a
change of disciplines is the chance to
take on the all-conquering French
rally star again.
Solberg was the last man to win
the World Rally Championship
before Loeb began his nine-year
domination of the sport’s top
tier. Now the 2003 title winner
is hoping to settle the score
in a racing car.
“The WTCC is just one of the race
options I have,” said Solberg. “But I
have to say that the chance to fight
with Loeb again is what’s making
me look at it. It would be fantastic,
and, for sure, my goal would be to
win against him.”
Solberg added that he had been
in discussions with endurance
racing teams and has an option to
compete in Scandinavian Touring
Solberg and Loeb could
continue fight on-track
Cars. A move into rallycross is
also under consideration.
“I could run my own team in
rallycross,” he said. “And this
would be interesting as well. With
IMG taking over the European
Rallycross Championship, you
know that it’s going to be very
well done with lots of television
and lots of good media coverage.
I have to make my mind up soon,
but I do have a lot of options, and
they even include which car I
would build for rallycross.”
Solberg began his career in
rallycross, following in the footsteps
of Norway’s best-known category
star Martin Schanche. Outside
the European Rallycross series,
Solberg is also hoping to contest
the X Games in America, where
he would face the cream of the
Global Rallycross Series.
While Loeb looks certain to be
a part of Citroen’s WTCC squad
for 2014 when the manufacturer
confirms its entry, his circuit racing
programme for this year is limited
to the six-round FIA GT Series,
in which he will race a McLaren
MP4-12C GT3 for his own
Sebastien Loeb Racing team.
LOEB KEEN ON RALLYCROSS
The 38-year-old Frenchman
admitted that he could be tempted
news
Pit & Paddock
to make a number of rallycross
outings himself this year after
winning a gold medal in the
category at last year’s X Games.
Loeb said: “It could be interesting
to do more rallycross over the course
of the year. I’m not sure if we would
do Global or European rallycross,
but Europe is closer to home.”
Loeb said his rallycross victory
at the X Games last season was
something he enjoyed.
“Maybe we could be doing
more like this,” he said. “We
would use the same car that
we did for the X Games [a
specifically-built DS3 rallycross
machine]. It would be nice to go
back to the X Games. It was a good
experience – except for waiting
around for so long and then doing
a race for five minutes.”
Much was made of safety
concerns at the 2012 X Games
following ex-rally king Marcus
Gronholm’s heavy accident during
practice for the event, but Loeb
dismissed such talk.
“It was not dangerous,” he
countered. “The only thing that
might have been dangerous was the
jump with nothing in the middle.
During practice this was OK, but
it might have been difficult if you
came to it in the race with a few
of you fighting for position.”
January 17 2013 autosport.com 21