The Federation Internationale de L'automobile (FIA), the governing body of world motor sports, grants 'World Championship' titles to only three competition categories which they recognise as the pinnacles of motor sports. The FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) is one of those categories, together with The FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) and the FIA Formula One World Championship (F1).

As most motor sports enthusiasts already know, the WRC is at the top level of car rallies that utilize natural terrain and F1 is at the top of the hierarchy for single seater formula cars that are produced only for competition on the race track. Then, the WTCC is at the top of touring car races, popularly known as "tin-top races," that utilise modified commercially available road cars.

The WTCC is the successor of the Europe Touring Car Championship (ETCC) and has been granted the FIA World Championship title since 2005.

Although the majority of the races are held in Europe, the series visits South America and Asia too, and provides thrilling competition for the whole world via satellite broadcasting.

The field consists of manufacturer teams and independent 'privateer' teams and they hold two races on the final day. From the 2007 season, the interval between the first race and the second one will be lengthened a little.

The starting grid of the second race is decided by the result of the first one and 'reverse grid system' means that the top 8 finishers of the first race will be positioned in reverse order on the grid for the second race. This provides close battles between top drivers which fascinates 'tin-top' fans all over the world.

Depending on each race result, competitors have to carry penalty weight; 20kg for the race winner, 15kg for the runner-up, 10kg for 3rd to 5th, 5kg for 6th to 8th, -5kg for 9th and -10kg for below 10th. In addition to this, 20kg is to be added for the very first race of the season but the maximum penalty weight for each competitor is limited to 60kg.

These systems guarantees closely fought battles in every round. Consequently, it is almost impossible to anticipate who is going to lay hands on the crown until the last minute. As many as nine drivers were in a position to win the championship title when they sat on the starting grid for the closing race of the 2006 season!

With some minor changes in sporting regulations such as above mentioned penalty weight system, the series are run on the same basic format from 2006. Its infighting which is rarely seen in other motor sport categories should continue to create many WTCC fans this year.

Four car manufacturers officially take part in the WTCC and some other occasional participants are expected to appear with other manufacturers' cars from time to time.

They are categorized into two divisions; manufacturer teams and independent teams. To the best of the latter, the YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy will be given.
　

Long time touring car race stalwart, BMW, is easily the strongest force in the WTCC. It has three teams, BMW Team GB, BMW Team Deutschland and BMW Italy-Spain under its umbrella and all these teams run identical BMW320si's.

The car's most significant feature is its rear wheel drive transmission system. As all other manufacturers employ front wheel drive machineries, BMW drivers often make the most of the superior car balance to gain the upper hand when concerning.

The most noteworthy member of the BMW camp is Andy Priaulx. The BMW Team GB driver won the 2005 and 2006 championships which means he is the reigning champion and the sole title holder in the history of WTCC.

But the hottest topic of the new season is that Augusto Farfus has joined BMW Team Deutschland. He drove for Alfaromeo in 2006, he contended with Priaulx for the title crown through the final race of the season. The defeat meant he was denied to become the youngest ever FIA World Champion at 22 years old. His performance in the same car as Priaulx deserves some attention.

The other key word on BMW's driver line-up for 2007 is 'Spanish.’ Both Felix Porteiro, who joins BMW Italy-Spain, and Sergio Hernandez, who drives for the independent Proteam Motorsport team are Spanish-born promising young guns and come into the WTCC arena with experience in GP2 and other junior formulae.

The legendary Italian manufacturer, Alfa Romeo, contended with BMW for the championship title in 2006 until the very last minute. Before the new season, the team totally renewed its driving force to challenge for the title crown again.

After Augusto Farfus who gave a thrilling title contention last year moved to BMW, James Thompson and Olivier Tielemans joined the N.technology team that represents the Italian marque in the WTCC.

The veteran British driver, Thompson, had been driving for years in both the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) and the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) which was the forerunner of the WTCC. Meanwhile, the rising Dutchman Tielemans is only 22 years old, but already has experience in the DTM and F3000. With the combination of a veteran and a young gun, N.technology now seems to have a solid driving team to chase the BMW camp.

It was said that Alfa Romeo would switch to a new model in 2007, but at the moment it is likely to run with the Alfa 156 that the team used in the 2006 campaign.

Under the Volkswagen group umbrella, Spanish car manufacturer, SEAT has been an active player in motor sport field with its sport-oriented models. And it is well known that they once participated in the WRC as a manufacturer team.

Actually, it is fair to say that SEAT's commitment to the WTCC has been very impressive. As you may know, SEAT Sport, as a single team, entered and ran as many as six cars in the 2006 championship!

Towards the 2007 season, however, SEAT Sport has reform the team with 'only' five cars. Gabriele Tarquini, Yvan Muller and Jordi Gene continue to drive for the Spanish team from last year and Michel Jourdain, who has gained much experience in CART and IRL in recent years, joins them.

And on the eve of the season opener, the team made the announcement that Tiago Monteiro would join the team. The Portuguese ex-grand prix driver holds the record of eighteen consecutive finishes in the 2005 Formula One season and received the Rookie of the Year award. His best result in Formula One was third place in the 2005 U.S.GP. He is certainly looking to improve in the WTCC and his progress deserves some attention.

Along with SEAT Sport, two satellite teams, SEAT Sport Italy and Exagon Engineering also take part in this year's championship. For the former, Roberto Colciago drives the lone entry and Pierre-Yves Corthals, who drove Honda Accord in selected events of 2006 for the latter.

The 2006 YOKOHAMA Independent Trophy winner, Tom Coronel, remains at GR Asia, partnered up with newly joined teammate Emmet O'Brien.

All these SEAT runners use a hatchback bodied Leon in the WTCC.

Chevrolet, one of General Motors' brands, also has an official team in the WTCC. The car they use is a four door saloon named Lacetti. This front wheel drive saloons are produced by GM's subsidiary company in Korea, GM Daewoo, and sold in Europe as the Chevrelot Lacetti.

In Japan, this model has been sold as Optra, initially in four door saloon and station wagon guises, but the former was discontinued.

In their third season in the WTCC, Chevrolet continues to deploy a three car team and all three drivers from 2006, Alain Menu, Nicola Larini and Rob Huff, remain for the 2007 season, which means a good level of stability in team organization. Menu and Huff each scored a win last year, while Larini, who couldn't get to the top of podium, showed consistent performance to finish the season in 12th and became the highest placed driver on the team.

One can expect much more success from the Chevrolet team this year.

Along with these four manufacturers, several independent teams may possibly bring other manufacturer's models into the WTCC.

As for Japanese machineries, JAS Motorsports deployed a limited program with the Honda Accord last year. Many fans hope to see them come back to the scene, but there is no official announcement from the team at the closing time of this article.

Although it was a onetime appearance, a Toyota Corolla also took part in 2006. And Peugeot 407 run by Peugeot Sport Denmark entered just two events last year too but, at the moment, none of these cars are likely to appear at least in early stages of 2007 championship.

One noteworthy item is that Volvo from Sweden run by as undisclosed team may enter the WTCC this year. This news was brought by Jacque Behar, president of the WTCC promoting company KSO, at the ADVAN Motorsport Annual Presentation held in Tokyo, February 2007.

Detailed information on the team and model they will run has not been revealed yet. But every old race fan would remember a touring car race version of Volvo Estate known as the Flying Brick in the 1980's and their participation in the WTCC in near the future is awaited.

Following its successful first season in 2006, ADVAN became the designated control tire for the WTCC series for the second successive year.

In the championship race where a wide variety of cars take part, control tires must provide the best and equal performance to all competitors, regardless of differences in the characteristics of their cars, especially that between front wheel drive and rear wheel drive, with only one specification of tire.

Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd has strengthened its development department to support the highest level of touring car races in the world. With ceaseless testing and input from drivers, as well as our vast experience and collected data from various motor sport activities, ADVAN has successfully come up with purpose-build slick and wet tires for the WTCC.

By providing high level performance for both front wheel drive and rear drive cars equally, ADVAN racing tires keep gathering praises from all drivers. With tires they can rely on, the close battles between WTCC drivers are getting hotter and hotter.