Prospective North American World Touring Car team Rotek Racing are still hopeful of making an appearance in the 2013 WTCC, with a view to contesting the 2014 season depending on the future of the regulations for existing machinery.
The team, who acquired the Arena Motorsports Ford Focus’ which were campaigned during the 2012 season, had been hoping to contest a selection of races during the 2013 season with driver Robb Holland. The team’s plans were, however, put on hold due to the uncertainty in the regulations regarding older-specification cars being eligible for 2014.
With it now confirmed that cars conforming to the current regulations will be eligible for a special trophy, there is incentive for teams such as Rotek Racing to compete in the series next year, despite the intorduction of new regulations allowing for faster cars.
For Holland, missing the opportunity to race at his home event this weekend is difficult, especially since the American racer made his WTCC début at the Sonoma circuit in 2012 at the wheel of a bamboo engineering Chevrolet.
“Firstly, we’re very disappointed not to have made our home race at Sonoma, particularly for the American and Ford racecar fans, many of whom have taken the trouble to contact us to express their support since we made our original announcement,” explained Holland. “Secondly, within the team there is a feeling of unfulfilled potential. We’re confident from the testing we’ve already done with the car with just some of the developments and new bits Arena had designed for it bolted on and Mountune’s latest Ford Ecoboost engine upgrades, that the Focus would be much more competitive this season than it was able to show last year.
“Currently though, we’re still assessing how the new-for 2014 regulations would affect our original plans and until we properly understand the full implications for our team no decision on next year’s program at least will be taken,” added Holland. “Nevertheless, while this process has had the effect of stalling the testing program we had started and putting back our 2013 program, we haven’t yet ruled out racing the Focus this season in the WTCC and remain hopeful that we will still do so.
“We hope that you will continue to bear with us.”