Italian Superturismo Championship Explained

Category:Touring cars
Inaugural:1987
Country/Region: Italy
Champion Driver: Niels Langeveld
Current Season: TCR Italy Touring Car Championship

The Italian Superturismo Championship (Campionato Italiano Superturismo) is Italy's national motorsport series for touring cars. It was established in 1987 and its drivers' title has been held by such notable drivers as Le Mans winners Emanuele Pirro and Rinaldo Capello, and two-time Champ Car champion Alex Zanardi.

History

Established in 1987 under Group A rules the series saw champions like Johnny Cecotto, Roberto Ravaglia and Nicola Larini winning the title before switching to Supertouring regulations in 1993. The first season of D2 Class saw the battel between Roberto Ravaglia with BMW 318i, Fabrizio Giovanardi with Peugeot 405 and Gabriele Tarquini with Alfa Romeo 155. The title was won by Ravaglia who was able to score points in every race although Giovanardi and Tarquini won many races in the second part of the season and tried to recover the initially gap.

The following year saw the debut of the Audi with the model Audi 80 Quattro who won in 1993 French Supertouring Championship with Frank Biela. The Audi 80 Quattro was immediately competitive and thanks to 6 wins and 5 seconds place Emanuele Pirro won the 1994 Italian Superturismo Championship against the Alfa driver Antonio Tamburini.

In 1995 Audi replaced the old Audi 80 Quattro with the new A4 Quattro. The new model was dominant winning 14 races on 20. Once again the title went to Emanuele Pirro.

The 1996 saw the triple battle between Rinaldo Capello with A4 Quattro and the 2 ex F1 drivers Emanuele Naspetti and Johnny Cecotto both with BMW 320i. After a promising first half of the season with 6 victories in 10 races, Rinaldo Capello had to defend from the 2 BMW Drivers who won 9 races on 10 in the second half of the season. The final Round in Vallelunga elected Rinaldo Capello as Italian Champion although the big effort of BMW who raced with 6 cars.

In 1997 Audi was burdened with 30kg extra by FIA who also banned the 4WD from the 1998. The consequence was a low competitivity of the two Audi drivers. After 3 years the Italian Title was won again by BMW who took the revenge from 1996 with Emanuele Naspetti who achieved 10 races, 7 second places and 1 this place in a total of 20 races.

In 1998 the Italian Supertouring had to face many problems. Due to a controversial decision the historical Promoter Salerno Corse was replaced by the Sponsor Service. The new promoter decided to make one sprint race of 50km and one endurance race of 100km. Alfa Romeo and Nordauto Engineering (the team that became N.Technology) had run the Alfa Romeo 155 during the 1993–1997 years but wouldn't win the series until they introduced their Alfa Romeo 156 model in 1998. Fabrizio Giovanardi won in that car both in 1998 and 1999.

In 1999 Audi officially withdrew to focus on Le Mans Project, letting just Alfa and BMW to fight for the title. Due to lack of cars the serie was definitively abandoned at the end of 1999 to allow the creaction of Euro STC in 2000.

Revival

The cancellation of the FIA Super Production championship in 2002 would mean the resumption of the Superturismo championship, albeit now under Super Production rules and named the Superproduzione. The SP cars were in many ways less advanced than the Super 2000 relatives in the ETCC. Salvatore Tavano won the 2003 Superproduzione season in an Alfa Romeo 147. The championship became an all-147 series in 2004 won by Adriano De Micheli. The season saw a very low number of entries with between four and six participants each weekend.

The ETCC became the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in 2005. At the same time the Superturismo was truly revived with Super 2000 rules. Alessandro Zanardi would win the first season in a BMW 320i. In 2006 SEAT joined the championship as a full works team with two Leóns driven by Roberto Colciago and Davide Roda. Colciago won the title ahead of returning 1997 champion Emanuele Naspetti in a BMW 320i.

In 2007 the championship changed its promoter to Peroni Promotion and was renamed ITCC (Italian Touring Car Competition).[1] However, grids were small as several teams moved to the WTCC and the Superstars Series, and the series was merged with the Peroni-run Driver's Trophy midway through 2008.

For the 2016 season, the championship adopted TCR regulations for the main class.

Champions

Series NameSeasonChampionTeam Champion
Italian Superturismo Championship1987 Michele Di Gioia (BMW M3)none
1988 Gianfranco Brancatelli (Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo)none
1989 Johnny Cecotto (BMW M3)none
1990 Roberto Ravaglia (BMW M3)none
1991 Roberto Ravaglia (BMW M3)none
1992 Nicola Larini (Alfa Romeo 155 GTA) Alfa Corse
1993 Roberto Ravaglia (BMW 318i) CiBiEmme Engineering
1994 Emanuele Pirro (Audi 80 Quattro) Audi Sport Italia
1995 Emanuele Pirro (Audi A4 Quattro) Audi Sport Italia
1996 Rinaldo Capello (Audi A4 Quattro) CiBiEmme Engineering
1997 Emanuele Naspetti (BMW 320i) CiBiEmme Engineering
1998 Fabrizio Giovanardi (Alfa Romeo 156) Nordauto Engineering
1999 Fabrizio Giovanardi (Alfa Romeo 156) Nordauto Engineering
Italian Super Production Championship2001 Fabio Francia (Alfa Romeo 147)none
2002 Massimo Pigoli (BMW 320i)none
2003 Salvatore Tavano (Alfa Romeo 147)none
2004 Adriano de Micheli (Alfa Romeo 147)none
Italian Superturismo Championship2005 Alessandro Zanardi (BMW 320i) ROAL Motorsport
2006 Roberto Colciago (SEAT León) SEAT Sport Italia
Italian Touring Car Competition2007 Cesare Cremonesi (BMW 320i) Arsenio Corse
2008 Massimo Arduini (Honda Accord) Team Mercury GPS
Campionato Italiano Turismo Endurance Luca Cappellari (BMW M3 E92)none
2009 Roberto Colciago (SEAT León Supercopa)none
2010 Paolo Meloni (BMW M3 E92)none
2011 Piero Necchi (BMW M3 E92)none
2012 Andrea Bacci (BMW M3 E92)none
2013 Giancarlo Busnelli (SEAT León Cupra)none
2014 Paolo Meloni
Massimiliano Tresoldi (BMW M3 E92)
none
2015 Valentina Albanese (SEAT León Cup Racer)none
Italian Touring Car Championship2016 Roberto Colciago (Honda Civic TCR)none
TCR Italian Touring Car Championship2017 Nicola Baldan (SEAT León TCR)none
2018 Salvatore Tavano (Cupra León TCR)none
2019 Salvatore Tavano (Cupra León TCR)none
2020 Salvatore Tavano (Cupra León Competicion TCR)none
2021 Antti Buri (Hyundai i30 N TCR)none
2022 Niels Langeveld (Hyundai Elantra N TCR)none

Superturismo era

Race winners

DriverTotal
129
226
317
414
57
7
7
66
6
6
75
84
93
102
111
ManufacturesTotal
149
247
337
46
51

Driver statistics

nowrapDriveralign=center nowrapPole Positionalign=center nowrapVictory2nd Place3rd PlaceTotal PodiumTotal Race
12429291775140
2526251162120
33171213046
4514162050120
5571172560
657561830
757181662
8169112640
936782142
10266132560
1125731586
123404844
133321638
142201312
150115740
161054920
17002026
180011240
19001012
200007720
210006642
221002242
230001140
000114
00011140
0001140

Manufactures statistics

ManufacturePole PositionVictory2nd Place3rd PlaceTotal Podium
136494045134
217475445146
313373436107
44691227
501102
600224

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Nuvolari3000.com NEWS, ITCC 2007. 3 September 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232553/http://www.nuvolari3000.com/itcc/news.php?year=2007. 3 March 2016. dead.