WTCR joins WEC in Bahrain

With the full support of the Bahrain Motor Federation, WTCR Race of Bahrain is scheduled to take place from November 10-12 as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship 8 Hours of Bahrain weekend.

WTCR Race of Bahrain and WTCR Race of Saudi Arabia (the week after) join the 2022 WTCR calendar in place of the planned Asia leg of races in China, Macau and South Korea that could not go ahead this year due to restrictions resulting from the global health pandemic.

Indeed, the inaugural WTCR Race of Bahrain, which is being organised in partnership with WEC promoter Le Mans Endurance Management, will feature one race on Friday November 11 (7.05pm-7.40pm) with the second race following on the morning of Saturday November 12 (10.00am-10.30 am) prior to the 8 Hours of Bahrain WEC season finale getting underway later in the day, at 2.00pm. The inaugural WTCR Race of Bahrain will use Bahrain International Circuit’s full 15-corner, 5.412-kilometre Grand Prix Circuit layout.

Alan Gow, FIA Touring Car Commission President, said: “It’s great to finally have a joint event with the FIA World Endurance Championship. Despite obvious differences in cars and race durations, touring cars and sportscars belong to the same family of closed-cockpit racing. There have always been crossovers between the two and drivers tend to switch from one discipline to another. This will also be something special for the fans, the media and should offer both promoters the opportunity to do some interesting promotional activities.”

Jean-Baptiste Ley, WTCR Director, Discovery Sports Events, said: “We thank the FIA, the Bahrain Motor Federation, Bahrain International Circuit and our partners at ACO through Le Mans Endurance Management. We already work in close collaboration with the ACO on the 24 Heures Motos, a round of the FIM Endurance World Championship for motorbikes that we also promote, and we are delighted to extend this alliance into another category.”