Pepe Oriola carries maximum success ballast for Portugal
As a result of scoring the most points throughout his home race weekend, Team Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s Pepe Oriola will carry the maximum 30kg of success ballast on board his SEAT León Racer this weekend at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve this weekend.
The 20-year-old won the first race last weekend at Valencia, and finished fifth in race two, and now sits third in the standings, 17 points behind overall leader Stefano Comini.
Comini, who also drives a SEAT but with Target Competition, finished sixth in the first race but won the second race and so will carry the second highest penalty of 20kg this weekend. The final ballast allocation of 10kg will be carried by Comini’s team-mate Michel Nykjaer, who picked up 26 points in Valencia, his best weekend of the season so far, elevating him to seventh in the standings.
The success ballast is calculated separately from the TCR International Series’ Balance of Performance measures, which sees the SEAT León Racer run at the base weight of 1,260kg, while the JAS Motorsport developed Honda Civic TCRs of WestCoast Racing will all carry an additional 35kg as a result of running with a race-specification gearbox.
The Audi TT Cup cars of Liqui Moly Team Engstler will continue to run with a reduction of 30kg and the Opel Astra OPCs of Campos Racing with a 35kg reduction.
The Ford Focus ST of Proteam Racing is not scheduled to make a reappearance until the next round of the Series at Monza on May 24th.
Success Ballast for Portugal
Driver – Team – Car – Weight
Pepe Oriola – Team Craft-Bamboo Lukoil – SEAT León Racer – +30kg
Stefano Comini – Target Competition – SEAT León Racer – +20kg
Michel Nykjaer – Target Competition – SEAT León Racer – +20kg
Balance Of Performance for Portugal
Car – Weight – Ride Height
Honda Civic TCR – 1,295kg – 80mm
SEAT León Racer – 1,260kg – 70mm
Audi TT Cup – 1,230kg – 70mm
Opel Astra OPC – 1,225kg – 70mm
