UNITED KINGDOM/FILE: MOTOR RACING - Britain's Andy Priaulx hopes to recapture the World Touring Cars Championship in Macau

Britain's Andy Priaulx is hoping for a repeat of his success in Macau last year as he bids to retain the World Touring Cars Championship title in the final race of the season on Sunday (November 12). The British driver goes into the race trailing Brazil's Augusto Farfus by one point, and with seven other drivers in with the chance of taking the championship the stage is set for a dramatic finale to the season. "There's nine drivers that could win it, which is really good from a viewing point of view and a spectator point of view, but from a driver point of view it's eight other guys that can actually end your weekend quite easily, so I'm just going to concentrate on my own job," said Priaulx in London on Tuesday (November 7). "Last year I went into the championship with two other guys who could win it and I had a dominant weekend and I took the world title, which is the first for nine years for a British driver, and that's what I want to do again." Priaulx cites his fondness of street circuits such as Macau as one of the reasons he is hoping to overhaul Farfus and win the championship. "I like street circuits, I like the fact that you run really close to the barrier at 160 mph and you've got to have good awareness of the car and it's extremely challenging. One particular section is probably twice the width of the car and yet you're travelling at more than 120 mph, a series of left and right hand corners, and you need to really be technical, you need to really understand the car and you need to be at one with the car to be fast, and I've always done well there and enjoy it very much," he said. The BMW drivers victory last year was the first FIA World Championship win by a British driver since Damon Hill's Formula One title in 1996. Despite admiring Formula One, Priaulx has no current plan to follow in Hill's footsteps, partly because of the lack of funding available in Formula One but also because of the enjoyment he gets racing Touring Cars. "Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport from a technological point of view and it's perceived as the place to be for a driver who wants to go, every young driver wants to aim at Formula One that's what I did, but there's only 22 slots in Formula One of which those top ten are getting paid to do that, the rest are bringing massive funding," he said. "Touring Cars is the place for Formula One quality drivers to go, that maybe haven't had the funding behind them to get into Formula One. The level of competitiveness in World Touring Cars is top drawer, it's a tough as you get at any level in motorsport anywhere in the world." Priaulx says he is content racing Touring Cars but there is one Formula One driver he would like to emulate. " I think you either become a Formula One driver or you become a Touring Car driver, so if I can't be the Michael Schumacher of Formula One I'd like to be the Michael Schumacher of World Touring Cars."

ITN Source | November 8, 2006

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