Four Japanese drivers now confirmed for home race

Nobuteru Taniguchi and Masataka Yanagida have been added to the line-up for the WTCC’s last appearance at the Okayama circuit in October, increasing the field of local drivers to four.

Yukinori Taniguchi is already racing for the bamboo-engineering team in one of their Chevrolet Lacetti’s, and Yoshihiro Ito has recently been confirmed as running a third Liqui-Moly Team Engstler at the event.

Nobuteru Taniguchi, who raced at Japan and Macau last year for Proteam Motorsport, will return again in a fourth BMW 320si entered by Proteam, in addition to the team’s regular drivers Sergio Hernández, Stefano D’Aste, and new driver for the Asian rounds, Kevin Chen.

“Last year, it was my first time to compete in the WTCC races but the results were devastating defeats and frustrating for me.” said Nobuteru Taniguchi

“As Yokohama Rubber kindly gave me a second opportunity this year, I would like to show my best possible performance against the world’s famous top drivers to know how good I am in that level.”

Masataka Yanagida, a regular driver in the Super GT championship for Team Petronas Syntium, will race a second BMW 320si fielded by the Wiechers-sport team, in addition to Mehdi Bennani.

“This will be my first opportunity to drive in WTCC races but I have really been wishing to take part in this category for some time,” said Yanagida.

“I would like to show good races for the fans with strong determination to be competitive against foreign drivers. I will do my best.”

The race at Okayama is the third time the WTCC has visited Japan, and is set to be the last appearance at the track as the championship will switch to the Suzuka circuit from 2011.