The 2006 WTCC Season Review

Andy Priaulx described the 2006 World Touring Car Championship as a 'roller coaster', and that was putting it mildly. Extortionate levels of success ballast coupled with reverse grids and some rapid underdogs meant that nobody could make a break for the title, and nine drivers went to the season finale in with a chance.

In 2004, Priaulx went into the European Touring Car Championship finale in Dubai with an outside chance of the title. Somehow, it all fell into place, and a year later, in what was now the world championship, he mastered Macau to retain the number one for another year, despite only winning one race all season.

But a third title in a row would surely be asking too much. The WTCC isn't a championship that lacks talent, and surely the breaks were going to fall to someone else this time round.

During the season, Priaulx described the championship as a roller coaster. Extortionate levels of success ballast meant that as the season wore on, a good weekend could force a driver to carry up to 80 kilograms of ballast in the next event, which at times wrecked their chances.

But the rules also meant that with a little grit and determination, it was possible to bounce back from anything, as Priaulx showed on more than one occasion.

He made the perfect start to his title defence by winning race one at Monza from pole position, and he was quick to point out that he wasn't expecting to add to that tally anytime soon, as the success ballast was bolted on right away.

But the man from Guernsey had a way of working the system. At Magny-Cours he used the reverse grid to score a second win of the year, and he was quick to point out he definitely wasn't going to win again for a long time as the ballast mounted up yet further.

But his tactic of finishing eighth in race one to earn pole for race two would work once again later in the year, and it should have been twice, were it not for a disastrous error on home soil at Brands Hatch.

Andy Priaulx at Brands Hatch © LAT

Priaulx had done his bit in race one, notching up a second consecutive eighth place in awful conditions, and he was literally floating away with the second race when a safety car period negated his advantage. At the time, Priaulx believed that what happened next had cost him the title.

With Alain Menu's Chevrolet tucked up behind him on the restart, Priaulx charged into Paddock Hill bend and kept on charging...into the gravel. Somehow he kept his BMW pointing in the right direction, but all he could salvage was another eighth place, and this one wasn't going to earn him a pole position.

But the doom and gloom didn't last long. Priaulx earned his pole position for the first race of the day next time out at Oschersleben, and dutifully won the race. He was back on top of the championship, but he wasn't getting too excited.

"Brands Hatch was a big disappointment, but you're only as good as your last race," he said at the time.

"There's a long way to go though, so as long as we are in the hunt at Macau that's what counts."

Priaulx pulled his trick of eighth-pole-victory for the final time at Curitiba in Brazil, but in the next four rounds heading into Macau he visited the podium just once.

It was through a combination of ballast and collisions, as the close championship battle led plenty of drivers into desperate driving to salvage any result they could. However, by the end of the year, several of the drivers and team bosses agreed that things had gone too far.

Despite only picking up one point in two panel-bending rounds at Istanbul and Valencia, Priaulx had achieved his goal. He went to Macau just a point behind the championship leader, and with less ballast than the majority of his rivals.

He took his fifth win of the year in race one, and a fifth place in race two was enough for title number three, and earned him the title of "Britain's own Schumacher" on the front cover of Autosport.

SEAT's super-team

The SEAT Leon had made a spectacular debut in the WTCC towards the end of 2005, and when the Spanish manufacturer expanded to six cars with a driver line-up that read like a 'who's who' of touring car drivers, it looked like they were finally ready to mount a title push.

Augusto Farfus (Alfa Romeo) leads a fleet of SEATS in Brazil © LAT

But perhaps the dream team approach backfired. Formula One team bosses often admit that having two competitive drivers hinders a tilt at the title, and while SEAT went to Macau with five drivers going for the championship, many wondered what they could have achieved if they had put their eggs in fewer baskets.

The Leon didn't win many races this year, but no individual driver (aside from Priaulx) could anyway. That meant that consistent top five finishes were crucial, but too often the SEAT drivers had to beat each other to do that.

However, they didn't lose the title just because there were too many of them fighting each other on track. The power of success ballast was no more apparent than when the Spanish cars were crippled with the penalty, and at times they couldn't even make the top 10, let alone worry about playing the reverse grid to get a race two result.

James Thompson was one of the more vocal on the subject, especially after Brno, where the uphill climb towards the end of the lap left him powerless to do anything as lighter cars just drove past him.

The SEAT was a good car though, as proved by Tom Coronel, who frequently mixed it with the big boys in his privateer Leon. Unfortunately for the Dutchman, his performances were so good that he has been told he is no longer allowed to compete for the independents trophy next year.

Baffled by the Brazilian

After the penultimate round of the season at Valencia, something looked wrong in the championship standings. After a trying year in a car that was lacking works support, Alfa Romeo's Augusto Farfus had somehow got himself to the top of the standings heading into Macau.

The Alfas had been written off for 2006 with the N.Technology team having to run the operation themselves, without the full support of their manufacturer. Based on the results early in the season, it didn't seem like they would be able to prove their doubters wrong.

Farfus had showed Andy Priaulx how to do it with a win at Monza after finishing eighth in race one, but in the next two rounds the team's best qualifying position among their three drivers was a 12th place for Gianni Morbidelli at Brands Hatch.

While Morbidelli and Salvatore Tavano offered little support to Farfus for most of the year, circumstances allowed Tavano to take his first points of the year with a victory in Mexico as several cars struggled with the surface of the track which was far from up to scratch.

In the end, Farfus peaked slightly too early. His stunning performance at Valencia gave him the championship lead heading to Macau, but the success ballast that came with it effectively ruled the championship leader out of the title hunt at the final round.

His struggles in the under-supported team were worth it though, because they were enough to convince BMW to ditch their all-German line-up at Schnitzer Motorsport, and give Farfus the equipment he really needs to battle Andy Priaulx.

Alain Menu wins at Brands Hatch © LAT

Behind all that...

When nine drivers do battle for a championship at the season finale, the achievements of those a little deeper in the pack can easily go unnoticed.

Chevrolet just met their target of a podium finish in the final round of 2005, but they were determined not to leave it that late to achieve their 2006 goal of a race win.

Alain Menu followed up his Macau third place with another straight away at Monza, so it was fitting that the Swiss driver also scored the first win for the manufacturer.

It was also fitting that it came in Britain, not only the home of the RML team that runs the cars, but the country where Menu had taken two titles while winning races in front of packed BTCC crowds during the 1990s.

Menu's success was partially thanks to the reverse grid and Andy Priaulx's rally efforts at Paddock Hill bend, but it was a win nonetheless, and later in the season Rob Huff played the reverse grid card and notched up his maiden victory at Brno.

Another man to score a popular maiden victory in just one year earlier was Alessandro Zanardi, and just to prove it was no fluke "the man with no legs" (his words) put in a more dominant performance in Turkey to score win number two.

There were no reverse grid tactics required here, as Zanardi qualified on the front row, took the lead from Rickard Rydell at the start, and then controlled the race from the front. He did it the only way he knew how - with style.