The full entry list for the 2014 FIA European Touring Car Cup has been announced, with 30 cars split over four classes for this year’s five event season.
The season kicks off at Paul Ricard on April 20th, joining the WTCC round there, then continues to join the WTCC in Slovakia, Austria and Belgium, before having a standalone season finale at Pergusa in Italy on September 28th.
This year, the Cup adds a class for the outgoing specification S2000 cars, which will race in the class called TC2T. There are five cars entered in the class, three BMW 320 TCs for Mat’o Homola, Aytaç Biter and Franz Engstler, and two Chevrolet Cruze 1.6Ts for Igor Skuz and Nikolay Karamyshev.
This is set to be the fastest class, with the Chevrolet Cruze much fancied as the quicker car, though taking into consideration Homola’s performances in the past two seasons, and the experience and speed of Engstler, who races in the ETCC for the first time since 2005, it should still be a close fight.
In the TC2 class, for older cars with normally aspirated engines as used in the first seven years of the WTCC, there’s a large 11 car contingent, with last year’s champion Petr Fulín returns with Krenek Motorsport, and will compete with the BMW 320si that took him to the title last year. There are plenty of new teams and faces joining the regulars, such as Rikli Motorsport with team boss Peter Rikli and last year’s Ladies Trophy champion Andrina Gugger.
Engstler Motorsport will field a pair of BMW 320sis in the class for Christian Fischer and Plamen Kralev, Sládecka Motorsport and Team Unicorse both bring back the Alfa Romeo 156 S2000 to the championship, while Norbert Nagy will race in the Chevrolet Cruze that Dusan Borkovic raced last season.
The Single-Make Trophy class features eight cars, with the class only open to the previous generation SEAT León Supercopa cars.
Last year’s champion Mario Dablander doesn’t return, but close rival Andreas Pfister does and will perhaps be the one to beat. Half the class will be made up by cars run by the SMP Racing Russian Bears squad, which fields four Russian drivers.
In the S1600 class, as before, the category is dominated by the Ford Fiesta 1.6, built for the German ADAC Procar Series Division 2 class.
Last year’s dominant champion Kevin Krammes does not return, which will perhaps leave the category more open. Of the six cars entered, five are being run by the German Ravenol Team, with just Gilles Bruckner the odd one out in his Team LuxMotor entry.
The Ladies Trophy will be run again and the competitors are the same as last year, with Andrina Gugger in the S2000-spec Honda Civic FD, and with Ulrike Krafft and Ksenya Niks competing in the S1600-spec Fiestas.
FIA ETCC 2014 Full Season Entry List
TC2T Class – Super 2000 w/1.6 turbo engines (WTCC 2011-2013)
No – Driver – Nat – Team – Car
2 – Mat’o Homola – SVK – Homola Motorsport – BMW 320 TC
3 – Igor Skuz – UKR – Campos Racing – Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T
4 – Aytaç Biter – TUR – Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport – BMW 320 TC
6 – Franz Engstler – GER – Liqui Moly Team Engstler – BMW 320 TC
12 – Nikolay Karamyshev – RUS – Campos Racing – Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T
TC2 Class – Super 2000 w/2.0 NA engines (WTCC 2005-2010)
No – Driver – Nat – Team – Car
7 – Peter Rikli – SUI – Rikli Motorsport – Honda Civic FD
8 – Norbert Nágy – HUN – MGS Racing – Chevrolet Cruze LT
9 – Christian Fischer – SUI – Liqui Moly Team Engstler – BMW 320si
10 – Andrina Gugger – SUI – Rikli Motorsport – Honda Civic FD
11 – Plamen Kralev – BGR – Liqui Moly Team Engstler – BMW 320si
14 – Milovan Vesnić – SRB – ASK Sport Auto Vesnić – BMW 320si
15 – Norbert Kiss – HUN – Team Unicorse – Alfa Romeo 156 S2000
16 – Kaan Önder – TUR – Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport – BMW 320si
18 – Samuel Sládecka – SVK – Sládecka Motorsport – Alfa Romeo 156 S2000
20 – Michal Matĕjovský – CZE – Krenek Motorsport – BMW 320si
22 – Petr Fulín – CZE – Krenek Motorsport – BMW 320si
Single-Make Trophy Class – SEAT León Supercopa Mk.2 cars
No – Driver – Nat – Team – Car
55 – Andreas Pfister – GER – Pfister Racing – SEAT León Supercopa
56 – Aku Pellinen – FIN – Aku Motorsport Team Niinivirta – SEAT León Supercopa
57 – Mikhail Maleev – RUS – SMP Racing Russian Bears – SEAT León Supercopa
58 – Sergey Ryabov – RUS – SMP Racing Russian Bears – SEAT León Supercopa
59 – Dmitry Bragin – RUS – SMP Racing Russian Bears – SEAT León Supercopa
60 – Vladimir Nikolaev – RUS – SMP Racing Russian Bears – SEAT León Supercopa
66 – Ronny Jost – SUI – Topcar Sport – SEAT León Supercopa
69 – Urs Sonderegger – SUI – PCR Sport Club – SEAT León Supercopa
S1600 Class – Super 1600 cars (1.6 litre NA engines/ADAC Procar Division 2)
No – Driver – Nat – Team – Car
32 – Gilles Bruckner – LUX – Team LuxMotor – Ford Fiesta 1.6 16V
33 – Ulrike Krafft – GER – Ravenol Team – Ford Fiesta 1.6 16V
34 – Patrick Wolf – SUI – Ravenol Team – Ford Fiesta 1.6 16V
35 – Christian Kranenberg – GER – Ravenol Team – Ford Fiesta 1.6 16V
36 – Erwin Lukas – GER – Ravenol Team – Ford Fiesta 1.6 16V
39 – Ksenya Niks – UKR – Ravenol Team – Ford Fiesta 1.6 16V
General Motors will take a $1.3 Billion Charge in its first quarter because of the massive recalls it announced earlier this year.
