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Portuguese student puts his Spark on Brands Hatch Race

2010 Young Creative Chevrolet applied art competition

2010-07-19

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José Rocha, a 30-year-old student from an applied arts school in Portugal set the pace at the Chevrolet World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) race in Brands Hatch, U.K. this weekend. The leading car for the race was the Chevrolet Spark José designed for the 2010 Young Creative Chevrolet contest. As the winner of the European 1st prize in the Visual Arts discipline he was invited to spend two full days with the WTCC race team and witness his design featured on WTCC lead car at the races in Brands Hatch, U.K.

On Saturday, José was welcomed in the paddock by Eric Nève, Chevrolet Motorsports Manager, who introduced him to the team and showed him the car decorated with the livery he had designed. José was then able to watch the qualifying and tour the pits of the Chevrolet team, where the racing engineers and mechanics were working on the WTCC Cruze race cars. In the evening, Rob Huff also took José on a hot lap each with the WTCC car.

José, who is a student of the ESTG-IPVC school in Viana do Castello, Portugal, said: "I love racing, the atmosphere and the excitement around the cars and drivers. I was so thrilled about coming to Brands Hatch to see "my car" on the track for real and not just on paper. What a unique experience! I really enjoyed meeting Eric and the whole racing team who all made me feel very welcome and also showed great interest in my project. The hot laps were absolutely great, I had a blast."

Eric Nève, Chevrolet Racing Manager, said: "This is the third time we are revealing the winning Young Creative Chevrolet visual art project on the track at a WTCC race. It is really great to see the enthusiasm and interest in the decorated car by the race teams, the visitors, the media and the organizers, but the most rewarding moment for us is when the students sees "their" car for the first time in reality. The contest is truly a win-win situation: The students get recognized for their outstanding creativity, and the art element makes Chevrolet and the WTCC interesting to people who may otherwise not be in contact with motor racing."

Launched by Chevrolet Europe in 2007, the pan-European "Young Creative Chevrolet" art contest is conducted annually in cooperation with applied arts schools across Europe. It supports upcoming young talent, encouraging students to look at Chevrolet from their own creative perspective. In the competition's 2010 edition, some 135 schools in 20 European countries in the disciplines of Fashion, Photography, Visual Arts, Video, and Music.

The brief for the Visual Arts discipline had been to redesign the exterior of the Chevrolet Spark in a way that will demonstrate the spirit of the car and electrify the crowd. The car featuring the winning livery will be unveiled as the lead car at a World Touring Car Championship race.

Wolfgang Buchwieser, Marketing Manager, RIDE Snowboards Europe and Visual Arts expert on the 2010 YCC jury said: "Rocha's design stood out because it is edgy and aggressive. You look at this piece of art and within a second it grabs you and reels you in".

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