The motor racing history wouldn`t be the same without Alessandro Zanardi, the Italian driver that worked his way up to the motor racing ladder, after being in the Formula One and winning two CART championships for Chip Ganassi Racing.

But the tragedy struck in 2001 when Zanardi lost both his legs in a crash at the Lausitzring in Germany. Even in prosthetic limbs, the strong Italian learned to drive a racing car with hands controls and returned to his place, into the driver`s seat.

After driving for BMW in the European Touring Car Championship and again in the World Touring Car Championship, he left the racing cars world in 2009 to train for the Paralympics.

But his love for BMW didn’t die and now the German luxury car manufacturer announced that Zanardi will be driving a Z4 GT3 in the Blancpain Sprint Series, the successor to the FIA GT Series.

The car was modified, fitting the hand controls to the M3 DTM, which will be fielded by ROAL Motorsport team.

Zanardi was well-appreciated by former DTM champion Roberto Ravaglia, who mentioned that the “sprints in the Blancpain GT Sprint Series are tailor-made for Alex”.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post Alex Zanardi behind the BMW`s Wheel Again appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

Tom Coronel (38) will start the 2011 World Touring Car Championship with a BMW 320 TC. After six seasons of WTCC with Dutch driver Tom Coronel is enthusiastic about this new opportunity. Following two days of testing at the Vallelunga track near Rome with the new BMW 320 TC of the Italian team ROAL Motorsport, the driver is very confident for the upcoming season. “The new 1.6 litre turbo engine has a great throttle response and provides a lot of power.“, the 38-year old driver says.

New regulations forced BMW Motorsport to adapt all their WTCC cars. The rearwheel driven car will have a 1.6 litre turbo engine, with an output of around 315 horsepower. Coming from the front wheel driven Seats, Coronel had to adapt a little. “For me, the test was a good way to familiarise with the new car. The different character of the turbo engine and, of course, the rear-wheel drive, forced me to adapt my driving style.”

Tom Coronel doesn’t expect any problems with the rear wheel driven cars. He has a long list of experience with rear wheel driven touring cars and Formula cars. The hight of his career was winning the Formula Nippon championship in 1999. After that he tested for Formula 1 team Arrows, raced the ETCC with BMW and won the Independants Trophy of the WTCC two times. He is also a frequent competitor of Le Mans. 2011 will mark a new chapter in his racingcareer. Lead by team principals and former racing drivers Roberto Ravaglia and Umberto Grano, ROAL Motorsport will be running Tom Coronel’s BMW this season. Ravaglia won the WTCC title in 1987 with BMW.

Tom Coronel continues “In this combination, several podium results should be within reach. It won’t be easy, but the potential is there.”

The FIA WTCC calendar consists of 12 raceweekends with 24 races and will kick off at the Brazilian circuit of Curitiba on March 20th.

A video of Tom Coronel testing the BMW 320 TC at Vallelunga last week is available:

Stay connected with BMWCoop for later information related to this topic.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post Tom Coronel will start the 2011 WTCC for BMW appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

According to some information revealed by the Germans at BMW in a recent press release we can notice that the Germans decided to quit the World Touring Car Championship, better known as WTCC. Of course this is not the happiest news possible mainly considering that BMW managed to impose in this competition as a leader, mainly thanks to its drivers, Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus.

Mario Theissen, the Head of BMW Motorsport claimed that due to some problems appeared on the technical regulation of the BMW 320si, BMW Motorsport will quit this competition.

However, BMW Motorsport will not quit this type of competitions as the Bavarian manufacturer recently announced that they are looking forward to return the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) from 2012. We already talked on that subject, you can check it by clicking the link above. Thus, BMW will return to the DTM in 2012, after 18 years they decided to not participate in this competition.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW to quit the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.