Bjork and Volvo end final TC1 season on top
IN JUST ITS SECOND YEAR IN THE WORLD Touring Car Championship, Volvo walked away with both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles. The cyan-blue S60 will go down in the record books as the final title winner of the TC1 era, but that doesn’t tell the full story – for although Volvo had the speed to justify its success, there’s just as much reason to argue that Honda lost both titles through a mix of misfortune and mistakes. All appeared rosy for Honda in the first part of the season. There were hairy moments – Norbert Michelisz being collected by Mehdi Bennani while moving for the lead at Monza, or Tiago Monteiro scoring just two points at the Nurburgring – but Monteiro had the points lead by 12 from Thed Bjork by the lengthy break, with three months to rest and test before the next round in October. But disaster was lurking around the (first) corner at Barcelona. Three days of testing in September ran without issue, save for 10 or so minutes on the final day. Monteiro was towards the end of the main straight when the brakes failed on his Civic at close to 160mph. Trying to avoid a head-on impact, Monteiro took to the grass and that put him into a spin, before crashing backwards into the wall. As more information about the incident gradually trickled out, the gravity of the situation became clearer, and Honda was ultimately forced to draft in veteran Gabriele Tarquini for Ningbo after Monteiro was ruled out on medical grounds – something that also occurred at the other remaining rounds. After the Chinese round, Bjork was now the new series leader, but Michelisz had closed to within four points and Honda seemed to have a very realistic title shot once more. And then, at Motegi, disaster struck. Honda lost its Ningbo results after its fuel injectors were deemed to be non-compliant with the championship’s regulations. The offence that led to the exclusion was tiny, but had significant consequences: back Michelisz went to his original pre-china total, as the gap between him and Bjork ballooned to 32.5 points. Honda needed another reaction from Michelisz and it got just that at Motegi. The Hungarian’s pole position clawed back more ground, and victory a day later meant his points deficit was halved over the weekend. Another solid weekend in Macau – despite his involvement in a race-one crash that produced a red flag – narrowed the gap further. Michelisz had ridden his luck, but with Bjork’s lead whittled down to 6.5 points the title was very much in reach. But disaster struck again in the finale in Qatar. Master-cylinder failure in qualifying restricted Michelisz to 11th on the grid for both races, while Bjork qualified fourth. Honda’s pain wasn’t quite over, for the almost inevitable still had to be confirmed. Bjork did all he needed, with Michelisz resigned to ninth and eighth-place finishes. The Swede wrapped up the title, and Volvo also sealed the manufacturers’ crown, despite Guerrieri – who had become the Monteiro understudy at Honda for the final three rounds after starting the season in a Campos Racing Chevrolet – winning the finale. Guerrieri had also taken victory in the Chevy in the Marrakech opener, and he took fourth in the points, right on the tail of Tom Chilton, who won three races in his Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen in his best season to date in the WTCC. Also close at hand in the points were Volvo’s Nicky Catsburg (winner on the Nurburgring Nordschleife), Chilton’s team-mate Bennani and Munnich Motorsport Citroen racer Rob Huff, who was winless until his almost-obligatory Macau Guia success. They all overhauled Monteiro’s score. The 2017 WTCC season was genuinely the most open for years, but that wasn’t enough to stop the lack of interest in the high-tech but expensive TC1 cars from driving the existing championship towards extinction. Now, a new era awaits for top-line global touring car racing.