FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) 2007 - BMW national team drivers fit for the rest of the WTCC season.

The four BMW national team drivers had little time to catch their breath following their successful start to the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in Curitiba, Brazil. Andy Priaulx (GBR), Jörg Müller (Germany), Augusto Farfus (BRA) and Félix Porteiro (ESP) were back in action once again from 18th to 23rd March, this time for a “fitness and teambuilding week” in Munich.The four drivers took part in an intensive programme of activities over the six days, picking up some valuable tips from experienced trainers on how to maintain and further improve their physical fitness. In addition to a comprehensive health check, a daily early morning work-out in Munich’s Englischer Garten and fitness training, the drivers also had the opportunity to get to know each other better and prepare together for the remaining 20 races of the World Touring Car Championship.

“The week in Munich brought me bang up-to-date as far as fitness and diet are concerned,” said WTCC champion Andy Priaulx.

“But I also had a lot of fun with my team-mates. We normally only meet up at the race track, but here we were working alongside each other in very different situations. This sort of thing definitely strengthens team spirit.”

For the BMW drivers the week began with a seminar on maintaining the right diet and a performance test to determine their current fitness levels. A check-up from the BMW health service in the Project House at the Research and Innovation Centre (FIZ) on Monday was followed by a fitness session in the “BMW Backup Center”, which is also used by BMW employees to keep in trim. In the afternoon the drivers paid a visit to the BMW Motorsport sports and touring car department, where they displayed their potential as mechanics under the watchful eye of the engineers.

After an endurance training session, the drivers then joined BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen to give a crowd-pleasing demonstration of their culinary skills for the assembled media representatives as part of the touring-car round table on Tuesday evening. The following morning the drivers set out with the BMW Mountain Bike Enduro for a ride through the Englischer Garten, before literally putting their bravery and powers of concentration on the line in the Aschheim tightrope park. That evening the drivers joined Theissen and an invited audience of 1,800 as guests of honour for the presentation of several new BMW models at the BMW subsidiary in Munich. On Thursday the Sportschule Oberhaching sports complex provided the perfect venue for a multi-faceted sports day, including a football match and coordination and reaction tests.

The “four-cylinder” BMW corporate HQ building hosted Friday’s grand finale. On any other day, the drivers would be squeezing every last drop of power from the four-cylinder engine of the BMW 320si WTCC, but on this occasion it was the four-cylinder pushing the drivers to the limit. The challenge was to climb the 22 floors of the imposing building as quickly as possible. Felix Porteiro was the first of the drivers to reach the top in just 2′57”, and gasped. “This race was a great way to round off an excellent week. The hard training sessions have really paid dividends. We could not be better prepared for the rest of the season.”

The next round of the FIA WTCC will take place on May 6th 2007 in Zandvoort (NLD).

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