Hankook is the exclusive tyre partner of the new touring car series Italian Touring Car Championship for the next couple of years. The season will start on 22nd May 2016 in Monza in northern Italy and compile of a total of seven racing weekends each with two races at 25 minutes plus one additional lap per race. Vehicles on the grid will be 4-door and front-wheel-drive racing cars with 2.0 litre 4-cylinder turbo engines powered by 330 hp from marques such as Alfa-Romeo [Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR], Honda [Honda Civic TCR], Opel [Opel Astra OPC], Seat [Seat Leon], Subaru [Subaru STi TCR] and Volkswagen [Volkwagen Golf TCR], all of which racing on purely Hankook Ventus Race racing tyres in size 260/660 R 18.
The Italian Touring Car Championship not only includes the TCR series but also the TCS series, which makes it possible for young motor sport talents to enter the world of touring car sport. Differences to the TCR series allow only modifications close to standard versions to be permitted with the exception of the exhaust, electronic engine control and chassis settings.
Hankook’s Motorsport Director for Europe Manfred Sandbichler commented “We are very pleased to have won the contract for the Italian Touring Car Championship from the commencing season in this new series. Touring car sport is experiencing great popularity at the moment and is becoming exceedingly more important through the TCR series across Europe. We are very proud of the fact that we are now partner and exclusive tyre supplier to a second European TCR series.”
For Marco Rogano, Director General ACI Sport, the partnership is an important step forward “We know we have chosen the right tyre partner with Hankook. Italy has the most demanding race tracks in Europe and with the premium tyres from Hankook we know that we can only expect top performance. Our previous cooperation was perfect, so we are greatly looking forward to the forthcoming season.”