One of only three world championships sanctioned by FIA, along with the Formula 1 World Championship and the World Rally Championship, the FIA World Touring Car Championship marks the fifth season since its inception as the pinnacle of touring car race series around the world.

What characterizes the WTCC races most is the aggressive battles on the track. Minor physical contacts or even pushing each other are a part of life out there. Spectators can't help being fascinated with the professional drivers' hotly fought battles unfolding all over the race track.

But this doesn't mean the drivers are merely outrageous. As its name tells, this is the world championship for the touring car drivers and teams at the highest level. While they never stop fighting from start to finish of each race, they certainly know the border between a thrilling battle and a dangerous action. Otherwise, the true motor sport fans won't be attracted.

Also, WTCC is one of the leading motor sport categories in terms of the spectator-oriented operation. The TV coverage of the WTCC races are spreading globally and more than 300 million people in 160 nations watched them on TV in 2008.

There are many reasons for the WTCC's popularity. First and foremost, it's "easy to understand" for spectators. One event consists of two 50km sprint races which last only about 30 minutes each, so the drivers have to push as hard as possible from start to finish, which guarantees many breathtaking actions for the spectators throughout the races.

In addition to offering two exciting races a day, the so-called Reverse Grid system is employed for Race 2 which normally starts a few hours later from the finish of Race 1. This means the top eight finishers in the first race will be placed in reversed order on the starting grid for the second one. The system usually makes the second race of the day less predictable and the battles in the upper ranks become hotter. The leading drivers' effort to regain the positions in front sometimes leads to pushing and shoving - and ultimately to a major accident - but it might be counted as one of the WTCC's appeals.
　

Reverse Grid System Result of Race 1 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ Grid for Race 2 8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd 2nd 1st (P.P.)

　
Along with the Reverse Grid system, WTCC has adopted the so-called Success Ballast to equalize the competitors' performance with adding weights on leading cars according to the race result. But this was substantially modified for the 2009 season and now it is called as the Compensate Weight.

Instead of giving additional weight to each driver as it used to, the purpose of new system is to equalize the performance between car models. The amount of weight that each model will carry is calculated with the formula shown below, based on the lap times in the qualifying session and races of previous events.
　

Compensation Weight System The designated weight is given to each of FIA's vehicle homologation numbers - all cars belong to the same model will run on the same minimum weight. (a) The best lap times of the top two qualifiers of each model. (b) The fastest lap times of each model in two races of an event. → The average of (a) and (b) = (c). (d) The three-event rolling average of (c). ●Then, calculate the difference in (d) between a model and the fastest model. Depending on the difference, the minimum weight of the slower model will be as follows: within 0.3 sec. No compensation more than 0.3 sec. -10kg per 0.1 sec. (up to -60kg) If the difference gets within 0.3 sec. by the weight deduction +10kg per 0.1 sec.

　
Although the system may look complicated, this would guarantee the much closer competition between the models. Particularly, the domination of turbo-diesel powered cars as we saw in 2008 should be avoided and the drivers' skill will be highlighted as a major determinant of race results more than before.

Another change in the 2009 championship is about the format of qualifying. Now the session to determine the starting grid for Race 1 is divided into two parts. The first 20 minute part will decide the top ten drivers and, after a five minute interval, those ten drivers will fight for the pole position in the second 10 minute part and get their grid positions according to the respective best lap time.

The grids of the drivers who lost out in the first part are to be decided by their best times during the first 20 minutes. As an exception to this format, for the races on the street circuits such as Pau in France or Macau, both parts are extended to 30 minutes and 15 minutes respectively.

This new format may have an impact on the teams' qualifying tactics, especially for the manufacturer teams. The drivers of manufacturer teams have had a habit to use the slip streaming between teammates in the qualifying session to gain the last tenth or hundredth. But, in much shorter time frames this year, it may be difficult to give all the drivers in a team equal opportunities to utilize the slip streaming.

Among other topics, it is worthwhile mentioning the WTCC's spirit of innovation on the environmental protection. From 2009 season, the teams must use the E10 biofuel supplied by PANTA, since the Italian company is now appointed as the official fuel supplier of WTCC. The E10 fuel made from 10% of the second generation bio ethanol blended with 90% unleaded fuel, in the case of petrol.

The first generation bio ethanol is made from food crops but it has a downside such as the rise of grain prices. Therefore, WTCC chose the second generation bio ethanol that is made from vegetable-origin industrial wastes in an effort to make the sport more eco-friendly.

ADVAN has been the sole tire supplier of WTCC since 2006, the second season of the championship, and keeps working on the development of performance tires suitable to the highest level of touring car races of the world by appointing a dedicated project team.

The biggest challenge in the initial development process was to adapt to both front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive cars and give them equal condition in terms of tire performance because these two types of cars compete against each other in WTCC. But Yokohama Rubber Co.'s expertise successfully overcame the challenge and earned much trust from all the participating teams and drivers, as well as the serie's organizers.

Among the venues around the world, some of the circuits are very demanding for tires but the ADVAN racing tires have never had a technical problem since they became the standard tires for the WTCC race cars, thus surely supporting the footing of world-class drivers' battles.

WTCC is one of a few race categories in which the use of tire warmers is allowed. While more and more race series ban the tire heating blankets these years, they are still the must item in WTCC to fully exploit the tire performance from the very first lap.

Even the highest level "tin-top" race cars stand only on the tire's contact patches, as all other automobiles do. Therefore, the hard fighting racing drivers and teams need to feel that they can fully trust the tires. By living up to their expectations, the ADVAN racing tires certainly contribute to the exciting battles on the race tracks.