Photo: ETCC Media

11-car entry for the ETCC season opener at Monza

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11 cars will line-up for the start of the 2017 European Touring Car Cup season this weekend at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, with all cars taking part in the rebadged ETCC 1 Cup class, with the Cup 2 class for Super 1600 cars now deserted.

The 11-car entry of TCR-type cars is therefore the strongest to-date in the ETCC’s top tier, with the series now becoming a one-class series for the first time.

As reported earlier this week, the continuation of the series is dependent on an agreement between the TCR Series promoter WSC Ltd and the FIA being finalised to use a licence to run with TCR cars for the coming season, as nine of the 11 entries do not have FIA homologation.

Last year’s champion Kris Richard won’t return this season, with the Swiss driver having switched to the TCR Germany series with Target Competition, but the Rikli Motorsport team with which he won the title are back, running a pair of Civic TCRs for fellow countrymen Peter Rikli and Christjohannes Schreiber.

Bulgarian driver Plamen Kralev will race a Kraf Racing Audi RS 3 LMS, the only Audi entered for the race.

The other eight cars in the ETCC are all variations of SEAT León, running with both the DSG and sequential racing gearboxes.

Zengõ Motorsport will field three of the SEATs for Norbert Nagy, Zsolt Szabo and Anett Gyorgy. Pfister Racing will run a León DSG for team boss Andreas Pfister. Macedonian driver Igor Stefanovski returns, now with his own racing team.

Lein Racing will run a pair of SEATs for Fabio Mota and Mladen Lalusic, while Krenek Motorsport will run their León TCR for Petr Fulín, last year’s runner-up back for a sixth season.

2017 ETCC Entry List

No – Driver – Nat – Team – Car
5 – Anett Gyorgy – HUN – Zengõ Motorsport – SEAT León Cup Racer
7 – Andreas Pfister – GER – Pfister Racing – SEAT León Cup Racer
8 – Norbert Nagy – HUN – Zengõ Motorsport – SEAT León Cup Racer
12 – Peter Rikli – SUI – Rikli Motorsport – Honda Civic TCR
14 – Igor Stefanovski – MKD – Stefanovski Racing Team – SEAT León Cup Racer
17 – Mladen Lalusic – SRB – LEIN Racing – SEAT León Cup Racer
22 – Petr Fulín – CZE – Krenek Motorsport – SEAT León Cup Racer
37 – Fabio Mota- POR – LEIN Racing – SEAT León Cup Racer
44 – Plamen Kralev – BGR – Kraf Racing – Audi RS 3 LMS
66 – Zsolt Szabo – HUN – Zengõ Motorsport – SEAT León Cup Racer
91 – Christjohannes Schriber – SUI – Rikli Motorsport – Honda Civic TCR