NEWS [ 845 ] - 19 Sep 2004
SEAT WINS RACE AND BMW THE FIRST TITLE

Lady Luck proved to be very capricious in Oschersleben. If she had favoured Alfa Romeo in Saturday’s qualifying, on the race day she smiled to BMW and SEAT.
The 17th and 18th rounds of the FIA European Touring Car Championship at the Motopark have delivered the first, unappealable verdicts for the titles: BMW has mathematically claimed the Manufacturers’ Championship for the second year in a row; on the contrary, the Drivers’ Championship will be decided on the last race meeting in Dubai (October 8), but it will be a family affair between three men of the German make. At the same time, SEAT obtained its first race win since it joined the FIA ETCC at the beginning of 2003.
Gabriele Tarquini, the outgoing champion, and Alfa Romeo leave Oschersleben disappointed and embittered. Their chances to win another title – re-launched two weeks ago in Imola – vanished after only three laps of today’s first race, when Tarquini retired due to a transmission failure that also prevented him to start in the second race.
This left the BMW drivers free to make their own races, with no threat to lose the championship in favour of Alfa Romeo. Andy Priaulx won Race 1, but he was victim of a race accident in the second one; just like Jörg Müller. Thus Dirk Müller was able to score important points, stretchig his leading margin in the championship to 12 and 17 points ahead of Priaulx and Jörg. With 20 points still to be awarded, this leaves only theoretical chances to his fellow BMW mates.
The second race turned to be a triumphal march for Rickard Rydell and SEAT. The Swedish driver snatched the lead from Coronel, and then resisted to D. Müller’s return. He drove a perfect race, claiming his first personal win in the FIA ETCC – after a number of podium results for Volvo and SEAT – but also gave the Spanish Manufacturer its first win in the European Championship. A well deserved honour, since the Toledo Cupra cars and his three drivers have become more and more competitive as the season progressed.
BMW’ s perfect day was completed by the results of the Independents Trophy and the DMSB Produktionswagen Meisterschaft. In the Independents Trophy, Carly Motors’ Tom Coronel won both races to secure the second consecutive title for the Dutch Team directed by Carly Pellinkhof. The two races counting towards the German championship were also won by BMW drivers: Franz Engstler and Claudia Hürtgen; the latter also stretched her leading margin to 27 points ahead of the Schubert Motors’ team-mate Thomas Winkelhock.