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Thursday, 31 October 2013

Thed Bjork and Volvo are in town.

The Chinese internet police are doing their best to stop me writing my blog again so I am having to use the internet connection on my mobile phone. It is not cheap for me but at least you can see what the WTCC teams are doing in China.
Thed Bjork,s Volvo at the airport, Shanghai.
Yokohama are the tyre supplier and one of the main sponsors for the WTCC but for some unknown reason they have not been allocated a garage and have not been allowed to erect a tent in the paddock, behind the WTCC team garages. It is almost a 200 metre walk for the tyre men from RML to come and fit their tyres. The CTCC race is also being held and the tyre supplier for them is Kumho tyres. They have been given a garage next to all of the CTCC teams. The Chinese obviously give first priority to their local championships. We also have the Maserati Trofeo race and their tyre supplier is Pirelli and they are set up right next to the Maserati tent structure.A very poor arrangement must be surely be changed for next year.  Each WTCC tyre and rim weighs approximately 16kg. And each tyre trolley can carry 8 tyres. So each tyre man, from each team, is having to push 128kg of tyres, plus the weight of the tyre trolley, almost 150-200 metres to the tyre fitting tent. It is a lot of hard work for these guys and I feel very sorry for them.
A view across the Shanghai circuit 30/10/2013

Honda assemble a tyre trolley.