Roberto Ravaglia
Roberto Ravaglia (born 26 May 1957 in Venice, Italy) is a former auto racing driver, who currently runs ROAL Motorsport, who operate a Chevrolet operation in the World Touring Car Championship. Before retiring in 1997, he was one of the most successful touring car racing drivers, primarily for BMW, and won seven titles in four different championships. Racing career He was twice Italian karting champion and raced in Formula 3 in the early 1980s. In 1984 he made his touring car debut, becoming European Touring Car Championship champion in 1986, and successfully defending the title in 1987 and 1988 (though in 1987 it was the World Touring Car Championship), with some races outside Europe including the Macau Grand Prix Guia Touring Car races and the James Hardie 1000 in Australia. Later in the 1988 season he was unable to defend his Macau win due to breaking a rib in a road accident driving his Fiat Uno. He switched with BMW to the DTM in 1989, and the Italian Superturismo Cham ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2008 World Touring Car Championship Season
The 2008 World Touring Car Championship season was the fifth World Touring Car Championship season, the fourth since its 2005 return. It began on 2 March, and ended on 16 November, after twenty-four races. The championship, which was open to Super 2000 Cars and Diesel 2000 Cars, was composed of the FIA World Touring Car Championship for Drivers and the FIA World Touring Car Championship for Manufacturers. Frenchman Yvan Muller won the Drivers title by 26 points from SEAT team-mate Gabriele Tarquini, with Chevrolet's Robert Huff finishing third just a point behind Tarquini. The Manufacturers Championship was awarded to SEAT. Teams and drivers The full season entry list. Note: Macau-based RPM Racing Team had planned to race one Toyota Altezza and one Honda Civic Type-R for Macanese drivers Lei Kit Meng and Jo Rosa Merszei in the final races in Macau. Although car numbers were allocated to them (#64 for Meng (Toyota Altezza) and #65 for Merszei (Honda Civic)), the FIA ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1997 FIA GT Championship Season
The 1997 FIA GT Championship was the inaugural season of FIA GT Championship, an auto racing series endorsed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO). The FIA GT Championship replaced the BPR Global GT Series which had been held races and championships from 1994 to 1996 after the series was promoted by the FIA, while Stéphane Ratel took over as promoter and organizer of the new championship, replaced the former BPR Organisation after the departure of partners Jürgen Barth and Patrick Peter. The races featured grand touring cars conforming to two categories of regulations, GT1 and GT2, and awarded driver and team championships in each category. The season began on 13 April 1997 and ended on 26 October 1997 after 11 rounds, visiting Europe, Japan, and the United States. Bernd Schneider and his AMG Mercedes team won the GT1 Drivers' and Teams' Championships, while Justin Bell and Viper Team Oreca secured t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a Megadiverse countries, megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with Deserts of Australia, deserts in the centre, tropical Forests of Australia, rainforests in the north-east, and List of mountains in Australia, mountain ranges in the south-east. The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately Early human migrations#Nearby Oceania, 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, last i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1987 James Hardie 1000
The 1987 James Hardie 1000 was an endurance race for Group A Touring Cars, staged on 4 October 1987 at the Mount Panorama Circuit, near Bathurst, in New South Wales, Australia. The race was the eighth round of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship, and was the 28th in a sequence of Bathurst 1000 races, commencing with the 1960 Armstrong 500 held at Phillip Island. The race was shortened from 163 laps to 161 for 1987, when the track was slightly lengthened by the addition of the Caltex Chase, a chicane which was built in response to the death of Mike Burgmann in an accident during the previous year's race. The addition of The Chase saw lap times increase by approximately 4–5 seconds over those in 1986. The Chase was also meant to slow the cars down, but the speed of the new breed of Group A cars (specifically the turbocharged Ford Sierra RS500), saw the fastest cars (Eggenberger Motorsport) reaching higher speeds () on the shortened straight than had been achieved ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Guia Race
The WTCR Race of Macau, previously Guia Race of Macau and WTCC Guia Race of Macau, is an international touring car race, and currently a round of the World Touring Car Cup. It is held on the temporary 6.2 km Guia Circuit on the streets of Macau, the Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China as part of the Macau Grand Prix weekend. Before 2005 when the World Touring Car Championship began, the Guia race had been run annually as a one-off international touring car race. History Since its first running in 1972, the race has been won by international touring car greats such as Tom Walkinshaw, Johnny Cecotto, Roberto Ravaglia, Emanuele Pirro, Joachim Winkelhock and Andy Priaulx. Historically it is also one of the most popular races of the weekend as it featured cars that are commonly seen on the Hong Kong and Macau roads. World Touring Car Championship The Guia Race of Macau has been the final round of the World Touring Car Championship since the series was ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Macau Grand Prix
The Macau Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prémio de Macau; ) is a motorsport road race for automobiles and motorcycles held annually in Macau. It is the only street circuit racing event in which both cars and motorcycles participate, and one of only two current national Grand Prix events that are not part of the Formula One World Championship, the other being the New Zealand Grand Prix. The first Macau Grand Prix event was held in 1954, as a sports car event. In 1961, the title race became an open-wheel Formula Libre event. The event has also had a variety of support races in its duration. Production cars joined the event in 1957, which were superseded by touring cars in 1972. The event received world championship status from 2005 to 2014 as the final round of the World Touring Car Championship. In 1976, the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix was introduced. In 2008, a GT3 race was added to the event, which became known as the FIA GT World Cup. The highlight of the race weekend is t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Touring Car Racing
Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move as fast as those in Formula racing, formula or sports car racing, sports car races, their similarity both to one another and to fans' own vehicles makes for entertaining, well-supported racing. The lesser use of aerodynamics means following cars have a much easier time passing than in open-wheel racing, and the more substantial bodies of the cars makes the subtle bumping and nudging for overtaking much more acceptable as part of racing. As well as short "sprint" races, many touring car series include one or more Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance races, which last anything from 3 to 24 hours and are a test of reliability and pit crews as much as car, driver speed, and consistency. Characteristics of a touring car Touring car racin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Formula 3
Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. History Formula Three (adopted by the FIA in 1950) evolved from postwar auto racing, with lightweight tube-frame chassis powered by 500 cc motorcycle engines (notably Nortons and JAP speedway). The 500 cc formula originally evolved in 1946 from low-cost "special" racing organised by enthusiasts in Bristol, England, just before the Second World War; British motorsport after the war picked up slowly, partly due to petrol rationing which continued for a number of years and home-built 500 cc cars engines were intended to be accessible to the "impecunious enthusiast". The second post-war motor race in Britain was organised by the VSCC in July 1947 at RAF Gransden Lodge, 500cc cars being the only post-war class to run that day. Three of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Karting
Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motorsport circuits. Karting is commonly perceived as the stepping stone to the higher ranks of motorsports, with most of Formula One champions including Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Ayrton Senna, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen, and Fernando Alonso having begun their careers in karting. Karts vary widely in speed and some (known as superkarts) can reach speeds exceeding , while recreational go-karts intended for the general public may be limited to lower speeds. History American Art Ingels is generally accepted to be the father of karting. A veteran hot rodder and a race car builder at Kurtis Kraft, he built the first kart in Southern California in 1956. Early karting events were h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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ROAL Motorsport
ROAL Motorsport (previously known as Ravaglia Motorsport) is an Italian auto racing team, which operated the BMW Team Italy-Spain team in the World Touring Car Championship, and currently competes as BMW Team Italia in the Italian GT Championship. It was founded in 2001 by 1987 World Touring Car champion Roberto Ravaglia and Aldo Preo (Roberto + Aldo = ROAL). Team History at roal-motorsport.com History Ravaglia Motorsport began competing in the Superproduction class of the European Super Touring Championship in 2001 as BMW Team Germany with Peter Kox and Norman Simon as drivers, with Kox winning the class. In 2002, they competed in the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) as BMW Team Spain with Jordi Gené and Fabrizio de Simone as drivers. In 2003, they became BMW Team Italy-Spain and had Antonio García and Fabrizio Giovanardi as drivers, with Alex Zanardi driving a third car at the season finale in Monza, using special controls following his serious accident in 2001 in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Auto Racing
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organised, with the first recorded as early as 1867. Many of the earliest events were effectively Classic trials, reliability trials, aimed at proving these new machines were a practical mode of transport, but soon became an important way for automobile makers to demonstrate their machines. By the 1930s, specialist racing cars had developed. There are now numerous different categories, each with different rules and regulations. History The first prearranged match race of two self-powered road vehicles over a prescribed route occurred at 4:30 A.M. on August 30, 1867, between Ashton-under-Lyne and Old Trafford, a distance of eight miles. It was won by the carriage of Isaac Watt Boulton. Internal combustion auto racing events began soon after ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1997 24 Hours Of Le Mans
The 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 65th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 14 and 15 June 1997. The race saw the first of a record (as of 2022) 9 wins at Le Mans for popular Danish driver Tom Kristensen. Pre-race The Dunlop chicane was modified slightly in order to slow speeds again but also accommodate larger gravel traps as runoff area for the protection of motorcycle riders using the Bugatti Circuit. Frenchman Sébastien Enjolras lost his life in a pre-qualifying accident in his Welter Racing WR LM97-Peugeot. Race The 1997 race was won by the same chassis as had won in 1996, marking the second time that Joest had won back-to-back Le Mans with the same chassis (previously done in 1984 and 1985). They were able to beat factory teams in the GT1 and LMP classes from Porsche, BMW and Nissan. The TWR-Porsche was not the fastest on track during the race, but was able to take advantage of the leading Porsche 911 GT1's and McLaren F1 GTR's mechanical problems, allowing t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |