The historic Autodromo Nazionale Monza racetrack near Monza, Italy is a legend of motorsport and on January 16, 2010 the SHU crew arrived at the Cathedral of Speed for the fourth event in the WTCC series. At the half way point in the season, Monza saw the largest turn out of drivers so far. Several newcomers joined the crew in time for this event, no doubt attracted to the bright lights, fame and fortune that comes with being a SHU member (no, really it’s true). Determined to put on a good show and prepped for speed the competition for grid position was fierce. With the adrenaline pumping and engines revving the race got underway. Unfortunately a log jam at the first turn resulted in multiple collisions. Undeterred by the carnage and wanting to avoid a restart at all costs, the crew sucked it up and soldiered on quickly regaining composure. The strict no cut rule notorious of Monza caught several drivers when tires began to wear, hitting them with stop n’go penalties late in the race. All in all, a very fast race with many battles was the order of the night. Checkout the post race discussion here

For the third WTCC event of the season, the SHU crew traveled to sunny Valencia, Spain.. home of the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia oranges, sangria and birthplace of ´La Paella´. So it’s no surprise the crew was geared up and ready to jam! The evenings festivities got off on time and without a hitch, which was a blessing after the previous week’s cluster cluck at Anderstorp. The field was tight, with fractions of second separating grid positions. Once again tire wear was a determining factor in the later stages. And for the first time this season the weight penalties could really be seen to have an obvious impact, especially negotiating all those acute corners. Only one dark cloud appeared when for the second time in two weeks the lead driver suffered a computer glitch and was forced to withdraw on lap 18. Despite that, several hard fought battles took place throughout the evening for various positions and good quality racing was enjoyed by all.

Custom liveries ftw!

After a short break for the holidays, the SHU crew headed back to the track January 2, 2010 to resume the WTCC season. The night at Anderstrop will be remembered for the slew of technical difficulties that welcomed the return to racing. Several minor delays pushed back the start of qualifying to let everyone get organized. Little did we know that mayhem and carnage was waiting at turn two! In two separate incidents, a combination of late braking took out the front of the pack, followed by a stuck throttle that eliminated the survivors. With half the field down the decision was made to return to the garage, get repairs and do a restart. More difficulties were encountered when the server advanced to next track and had to be restarted.

By now it was getting too late to re-qualify, so grid positions were randomized and the race got underway (again). After a nervous first lap the field settled down to the business of racing. Some good battles were fought and gentlemen’s conduct prevailed. All was well until lap 19 of 20 when disaster struck again. The lead driver had a comfortable margin over second place and could virtually taste the win when his PC crashed, earning a disappointing DNF. At the end of the night, the crew left the Scandinavian Raceway at Anderstorp battered and bruised but determined to regroup and look forward to better luck at Valencia, Spain.

WTCC season kick off at Curitiba. On Dec 12 2009 the SHU crew kicked off the long awaited WTCC season with a visit to Curitiba. Things got off to a flying start with an aerial acrobatic display by Bender and Surge (show offs) on the first lap before settling down into twenty laps of serious racing. With tyres worn away to nothing in the final laps, it was a challenge just to keep the cars on the track. Drawing on experience gained from the mini rain season proved valuable in keeping the racing line with reduced traction. A great start to an exciting WTCC championship!