Thed Björk will take on the Chinese rounds of the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) with ‘intact motivation’ after a two-and-a-half month break, with the Swede looking to close down the 38 point gap to the top of the championship table.
Björk has spent some of his summer months racing in the Swedish GT Championship, where Cyan Racing have been campaigning a Lotus Evora GT whilst they have no active racing programme of their own.
That has enabled Björk to keep up his track time since the last WTCR round in Slovakia, and he is keen to end the season with a run of strong results in the two events in China in the next ten days.
Björk previously sampled the Ningbo International Speedpark when the WTCC visited the new circuit in 2017, with the Swede finishing second in the two-lap, red-flagged Main Race held in heavy rain by virtue of having qualified in second.
“It was a long break, but I was quite active because I raced a bit in GTs in Sweden this summer,” said Björk. “My motivation is intact and, with Yvan, I can say that we are very involved in working hard to get the best results from the team.
“I remember the Ningbo track, which was very wet last year, but conditions should be different this time.”
YMR Team Principal and Björk’s team-mate Yvan Muller has been busy with some of his outfit’s other programmes in the second half of the summer.
Whilst the Frenchman has never previously raced at the Chinese circuit, he admits that is not a particular disadvantage as more than half of the field has never previously sampled the track.
“The break was long, but I did not have the time to be bored this summer with the other programs of the team,” said Muller. “But it’s still good to come back to the competition.
“We should be on par with the other competitors in Ningbo, so the goal is to aim for big results.”
Both Björk and Muller’s Hyundai i30 N TCR cars will be amongst the heaviest cars on the grid this weekend as they carry 60 kg of compensation weight based on the last three events.