The TCR Italy Touring Car Championship (formerly known as Campionato Italiano Superturismo) is Italy's national motorsport series for touring cars. It was established in 1987 and its drivers' title has been held by such notable drivers as Le Mans winners Emanuele Pirro and Rinaldo Capello, and two-time Champ Car champion Alex Zanardi.

History Established in 1987 under Group A rules the series saw champions like Johnny Cecotto, Roberto Ravaglia and Nicola Larini winning the title before switching to Supertouring regulations in 1993. The first season of D2 Class saw the battel between Roberto Ravaglia with BMW 318i, Fabrizio Giovanardi with Peugeot 405 and Gabriele Tarquini with Alfa Romeo 155. The title was won by Ravaglia who was able to score points in every race although Giovanardi and Tarquini won many races in the second part of the season and tried to recover the initially gap.

The following year saw the debut of the Audi with the model Audi 80 Quattro who won in 1993 French Supertouring Championship with Frank Biela. The Audi 80 Quattro was immediately competitive and thanks to 6 wins and 5 seconds place Emanuele Pirro won the 1994 Italian Superturismo Championship against the Alfa driver Antonio Tamburini.

In 1995 Audi replaced the old Audi 80 Quattro with the new A4 Quattro. The new model was dominant winning 14 races on 20. Once again the title went to Emanuele Pirro.

The 1996 saw the triple battle between Rinaldo Capello with A4 Quattro and the 2 ex F1 drivers Emanuele Naspetti and Johnny Cecotto both with BMW 320i. After a promising first half of the season with 6 victories in 10 races, Rinaldo Capello had to defend from the 2 BMW Drivers who won 9 races on 10 in the second half of the season. The final Round in Vallelunga elected Rinaldo Capello as Italian Champion although the big effort of BMW who raced with 6 cars.

In 1997 Audi was burdened with 30kg extra by FIA who also banned the 4WD from the 1998. The consequence was a low competitivity of the two Audi drivers. After 3 years the Italian Title was won again by BMW who took the revenge from 1996 with Emanuele Naspetti who achieved 10 races, 7 second places and 1 this place in a total of 20 races.

In 1998 the Italian Supertouring had to face many problems. Due to a controversial decision the historical Promoter Salerno Corse was replaced by the Sponsor Service. The new promoter decided to make one sprint race of 50km and one endurance race of 100km. Alfa Romeo and Nordauto Engineering (the team that became N.Technology) had run the Alfa Romeo 155 during the 1993–1997 years but wouldn't win the series until they introduced their Alfa Romeo 156 model in 1998. Fabrizio Giovanardi won in that car both in 1998 and 1999.

In 1999 Audi officially withdrew to focus on Le Mans Project, letting just Alfa and BMW to fight for the title.

Due to lack of cars the serie was definitively abandoned at the end of 1999 to allow the creaction of Euro STC in 2000.

Revival The cancellation of the FIA Super Production championship in 2002 would mean the resumption of the Superturismo championship, albeit now under Super Production rules and named the Superproduzione. The SP cars were in many ways less advanced than the Super 2000 relatives in the ETCC. Salvatore Tavano won the 2003 Superproduzione season in an Alfa Romeo 147. The championship became an all-147 series in 2004 won by Adriano De Micheli. The season saw a very low number of entries with between four and six participants each weekend.

The ETCC became the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in 2005. At the same time the Superturismo was truly revived with Super 2000 rules. Alessandro Zanardi would win the first season in a BMW 320i. In 2006 SEAT joined the championship as a full works team with two Leóns driven by Roberto Colciago and Davide Roda. Colciago won the title ahead of returning 1997 champion Emanuele Naspetti in a BMW 320i.

In 2007 the championship changed its promoter to Peroni Promotion and was renamed ITCC (Italian Touring Car Competition). However, grids were small as several teams moved to the WTCC and the Superstars Series, and the series was merged with the Peroni-run Driver's Trophy midway through 2008.

For the 2016 season, the championship adopted TCR regulations for the main class.

Champions Series NameSeasonChampionTeam Champion Italian Superturismo Championship 1987 Michele Di Gioia (BMW M3) none 1988 Gianfranco Brancatelli (Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo) none 1989 Johnny Cecotto (BMW M3) none 1990 Roberto Ravaglia (BMW M3) none 1991 Roberto Ravaglia (BMW M3) none 1992 Nicola Larini (Alfa Romeo 155 GTA) Alfa Corse 1993 Roberto Ravaglia (BMW 318i) CiBiEmme Engineering 1994 Emanuele Pirro (Audi 80 Quattro) Audi Sport Italia 1995 Emanuele Pirro (Audi A4 Quattro) Audi Sport Italia 1996 Rinaldo Capello (Audi A4 Quattro) CiBiEmme Engineering 1997 Emanuele Naspetti (BMW 320i) CiBiEmme Engineering 1998 Fabrizio Giovanardi (Alfa Romeo 156) Nordauto Engineering 1999 Fabrizio Giovanardi (Alfa Romeo 156) Nordauto Engineering Italian Super Production Championship 2001 Fabio Francia (Alfa Romeo 147) none 2002 Massimo Pigoli (BMW 320i) none 2003 Salvatore Tavano (Alfa Romeo 147) none 2004 Adriano de Micheli (Alfa Romeo 147) none Italian Superturismo Championship 2005 Alessandro Zanardi (BMW 320i) ROAL Motorsport 2006 Roberto Colciago (SEAT León) SEAT Sport Italia Italian Touring Car Competition 2007 Cesare Cremonesi (BMW 320i) Arsenio Corse 2008 Massimo Arduini (Honda Accord) Team Mercury GPS Campionato Italiano Turismo Endurance Luca Cappellari (BMW M3 E92) none 2009 Roberto Colciago (SEAT León Supercopa) none 2010 Paolo Meloni (BMW M3 E92) none 2011 Piero Necchi (BMW M3 E92) none 2012 Andrea Bacci (BMW M3 E92) none 2013 Giancarlo Busnelli (SEAT León Cupra) none 2014 Paolo Meloni Massimiliano Tresoldi (BMW M3 E92) none 2015 Valentina Albanese (SEAT León Cup Racer) noneItalian Touring Car Championship2016 Roberto Colciago (Honda Civic TCR)noneTCR Italian Touring Car Championship2017 Nicola Baldan (SEAT León TCR)none2018 Salvatore Tavano (Cupra León TCR)none2019 Salvatore Tavano (Cupra León TCR)none2020 Salvatore Tavano (Cupra León Competicion TCR)none2021 Antti Buri (Hyundai i30 N TCR)none2022 Niels Langeveld (Hyundai Elantra N TCR)none 2023 Franco Girolami (Audi RS 3 LMS TCR)none 2024 Nicolas Taylor (Audi RS 3 LMS TCR)none

Superturismo era

Race winners

DriverTotal1 Fabrizio Giovanardi 292 Emanuele Naspetti 263 Emanuele Pirro 174 Rinaldo Capello 145 Johnny Cecotto 7 Antonio Tamburini 7 Gabriele Tarquini 76 Fabrizio De Simone 6 Nicola Larini 6 Roberto Ravaglia 67 Roberto Colciago 58 Gianni Morbidelli 49 Stefano Modena 310 Frank Biela 211 Gary Ayles 1

ManufacturesTotal1 Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1022 Honda Civic 993 BMW 1 Series 804 Audi A3 615 Peugeot 308 456 Volkswagen Golf 387 Mercedes A Klasse 308 Opel Astra 219 Seat Leon 1810 Renault Megane 1111 Chrysler 200C 712 Fiat Tipo 2

Driver statistics

DriverPole PositionVictory 2nd Place 3rd Place Total Podium Total Race1 Fabrizio Giovanardi 24292917751402 Emanuele Naspetti 5262511621203 Emanuele Pirro 31712130464 Rinaldo Capello 5141620501205 Johnny Cecotto 5711725606 Gabriele Tarquini 575618307 Antonio Tamburini 571816628 Nicola Larini 1691126409 Roberto Ravaglia 3678214210 Fabrizio De Simone 26613256011 Roberto Colciago 2573158612 Gianni Morbidelli 340484413 Stefano Modena 332163814 Frank Biela 220131215 Gary Ayles 011574016 Yvan Muller 105492017 Giorgio Francia 00202618 Alexander Burgstaller 001124019 Steve Soper 00101220 Karl Wendlinger 000772021 Fabian Peroni 000664222 Tamara Vidali 100224223 Amato Ferrari 0001140 Alessandro Nannini 000114 Massimo Pigoli 00011140 Sandro Sardelli 0001140

Manufactures statistics

Manufacture Pole Position Victory 2nd Place 3rd Place Total Podium1 Alfa Romeo 364940451342 BMW 174754451463 Audi 133734361074 Peugeot 46912275 Opel 011026 Honda 00224

Statistics from 1993 to 1999 with D2 Cars

See also Superstars Series

References

External links News and results List of champions 1987–1999