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Chevrolet WTCC car to dress up for milestone race in Porto

2009-06-29

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Alain Menu's Chevrolet Cruze race car will clearly stand out from the crowd at the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) races in Porto, Portugal, this coming weekend, as it will sport a unique livery.

The new and original decoration is the 2009 winning design in the Visual Arts discipline of the pan-European "Young? Creative? Chevrolet!" competition conducted by Chevrolet in cooperation with
applied arts schools across Europe.

Launched in 2007, the "Young? Creative? Chevrolet!" art contest supports upcoming young talent, encouraging students to look at Chevrolet from their own creative perspective. In the competition's 2009 edition, some 530 projects were submitted by 120 schools in 19 European countries in the disciplines of Fashion, Photography, Visual Arts, Video, and Music.

The brief for the Visual Arts discipline was to design a unique livery for the Chevrolet Cruze WTCC car and on May 29, 2009, an international panel of judges selected the work of Britt Raes, a 22-year-old student of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent, Belgium, as the European winner in this discipline. "The graphic reflects the speed. It is an excellent combination of creativity and elegance and offers a very interesting design and interpretation of the logo," the jury said about the project.

In a addition to a monetary prize, Britt's reward for winning 1st place is an exclusive witness trip to the races in Porto, where she will be able to witness her design featured on Alain Menu's Chevrolet Cruze WTCC car in the races. Britt will also be taken on a tour of the race track in a Chevrolet Corvette by one of the three Chevrolet drivers on Saturday.

"Speed is the key element for racing and winning. With the logos virtually flying off the car, I wanted to express this speed visually in my design. The logo itself is, of course, an important element representing the brand. The work we do in school is usually just on paper and only rarely on a big scale. I am thus very proud and can't wait to see my graphic on the race car. Until now, I've only watched races on TV and I'm very excited to see one live. Having the opportunity to be on site and so close to the Chevrolet race team will be an awesome experience," says Britt Raes.

Chevrolet race driver Alain Menu says: "I am very proud to drive the car with the winning "Young? Creative? Chevrolet!" design again. I really like this creative project and I hope the special livery will bring me luck! Chevrolet's art contest is a great initiative to help generate interest in the WTCC from quarters not necessarily familiar with racing."

Race 2 on the Circuito da Boavista in Porto will mark an important milestone in the history of the world's main touring car championship, being the 100th WTCC race. This event will be duly celebrated by the WTCC community and, obviously, also by Chevrolet, who can pride itself of having been present in the championship from the very beginning with the same team and the same drivers! Chevrolet, who obtained its first triple victory in Porto in 2007, is determined to mark the occasion by further enriching the Cruze's excellent record on urban tracks.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About World Touring Car Championship (WTCC):

The WTCC races take place in America, Europe and Asia between March and November.

Porto race schedule (CET -1)

Friday, July 3, 2009

15:00-15:30 (14:00-14:30) Free Practice 1

Saturday, July 4, 2009

09:00-09:30 (08:00-08:30) Free Practice 1
12:00-12:30 (11:00-11:30) Free Practice 2
15:00-15:50 (14:00-14:50) Qualifying (Q1 30' + Q2 15')

Sunday, July 5, 2009

09:00-09:15 (08:00-08:15) Warm up
11:35-12:00 (10:35-12:00) Race 1 (11 laps = 51.920 kms) (Rolling start)
16:50-17:15 (15:50-16:15) Race 2 (11 laps = 51.920 kms) (Standing start)

Porto WTCC race on TV

In Europe, the qualifying, warm up and races will be broadcast live on Eurosport International.

About the Young? Creative? Chevrolet! contest:

WHAT IT IS

Young? Creative? Chevrolet! is a pan-European contest for students of Applied Arts organized annually by Chevrolet Europe since 2007 in various artistic fields (2009: Fashion, Music, Photography, Video and Visual Arts). With this project, Chevrolet Europe wants to foster creativity and help young artists. Young? Creative? Chevrolet! also aims to strengthen some of the company's core brand values.

HOW IT WORKS

In each participating country, a panel of judges (specialists in arts and others) award three prizes per participating discipline. All 1st prize winners of the national awards automatically participate in the pan-European competition in which an international jury eventually elects the best three projects in each discipline.

PRIZES

In addition to a monetary prize, the European winners are offered a work experiences with professionals in their respective discipline (witness trips).

DEVELOPMENT

The contest has continuously grown from 8 participating countries and 8 schools in 2007 to a total of 19 countries and 120 schools. The 2009 edition yielded a total of 530 projects.

More information: www.youngcreativechevrolet.com