For the first-ever time in the World Touring Car Championship small German team Wiechers-Sport will not be present on the grid after team owner Wolfgang Kruse admitted the outfit had failed to raise the required budget for 2014.
Wiechers-Sport have been long-term supporters of the WTCC and have raced with BMW cars in the series since its resurrection in 2005. In that time the Nienburg outfit have notched up 198 race starts, securing three outright victories and six podiums on the way. The most recent win came from Argentine José María López in Argentina in 2013.
Wiechers also enjoyed success in 2005 when they took the independent driver’s championship in the first year with Marc Hennerici.
“It is unfortunate that we will not be there in 2014,” said Kruse. “The economic conditions for the TC1 category are however subject to too much risk for a private team in the first year. For this reason I have decided to suspend this season.”
Team Manager Dominic Greiner admitted that the decision had been a difficult one but that they hope to return in future seasons.
“With a heavy heart we will for the first time not take part this season,” said Greiner. “We have worked hard until the last possible day in order to secure a full season programme, but we did not succeed to put together a solid financial basis.
“It is really tough for us not to be in the championship after nine successful years. Our target is to be back in 2015 with a competitive TC1 car, as we believe that the championship has a great potential to grow further up under the new technical regulations.”
“My thanks at this point go to our long-time sponsors and partners around the world, to the drivers and team members who have supported us in the past few years, and, not least, to our great fans.”
There will still be two German teams represented in the 2014 series, with Münnich Motorsport racing two TC1 Chevrolet’s and Liqui Moly Team Engstler competing in the TC2 category with as-yet unannounced drivers.