11.03.2003 THE LEGENDARY AUTODELTA NAME RETURNS TO THE TRACK TRACKS
| Forty years after Autodelta
was first set up, the company's distinctive triangular logo is making a
comeback on Alfa Romeo cars. Autodelta, first seen on 5 March 1963, made
its reappearance on 5 March 2003 at the Geneva Motor Show. The logo will
appear on the new Alfa Romeo 156 GTAs due to take part in the European
Touring Car Championship (FIA ETCC) 2003, where they will be driven by
Nicola Larini, Gabriele Tarquini and Roberto Colciago.
Alfa Romeo has chosen Autodelta
- the stable that boasts the greatest number of Alfa wins - to announce
a return to racing that is even more ambitious than the return to form
that has seen the brand drive away with the Manufacturers title and the
drivers' title in the European Touring Car Championship over the last two
years.
The Giulia TZ was the first model to put Autodelta firmly on the map and the company remained Alfa Romeo's technological sounding board and high-tech department for more than twenty years in all areas of motorsport including Formula 1. Just as in those days, the races will be fought out by cars derived from standard production models. The car of the Sixties and Seventies, was the Alfa Romeo Giulia in its TZ1, TZ2, GTA, GTAJ and GT Am versions. Now comes the turn of the Alfa 156, in the guise of the GTA version that won the last two editions of the European Touring Car Championship. This year, the championship includes 10 events raced over the most prestigious circuits in Europe. The races start on 6 April in Barcelona and end up on 19 October in Monza. As far as the drivers are concerned, Nicola Larini will pursue his commitment to win at the wheel of the Alfa Romeo cars he began to race so successfully in 1992 in the Italian Touring Car Championship. In 1993, he was a victor at the DTM, again in an Alfa Romeo. He has been racing Alfa 156 cars since 1998. Gabriele Tarquini, at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo, won the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) in 1994. This season, he has raced in the last two European Touring Car events in an Alfa 156 from the GTA Racing Team Nordauto and helped to win the 2002 Manufacturers title. Roberto Colciago also joined the Alfa Romeo team this year to compete in the last three events of the continental series. He took an excellent second place at Pergusa in 2002. Since 1991, the year when Alfa Romeo cars made their official return to touring car races, Alfa cars have entered 331 races to win 112 victories, 76 pole positions, 84 fastest laps, 104 second places and 75 third places. Alfa drivers have stood on the podium 291 times. |
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