Italian Superturismo Championship

Italian Superturismo Championship

Category	Touring cars
Country	Italy
Inaugural season	1987
Drivers' champion	Niels Langeveld
Teams' champion	Target Competition
Current season

The Italian Superturismo Championship (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).^[1] 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 Name	Season	Champion	Team 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)	none
Italian Touring Car Championship	2016	Roberto Colciago (Honda Civic TCR)	none
TCR Italian Touring Car Championship	2017	Nicola Baldan (SEAT León TCR)	none
	2018	Salvatore Tavano (Cupra León TCR)	none
	2019	Salvatore Tavano (Cupra León TCR)	none
	2020	Salvatore Tavano (Cupra León Competicion TCR)	none
	2021	Antti Buri (Hyundai i30 N TCR)	none
	2022	Niels Langeveld (Hyundai Elantra N TCR)	none

Superturismo era

Race winners

Driver Total 1 Fabrizio Giovanardi 29 2 Emanuele Naspetti 26 3 Emanuele Pirro 17 4 Rinaldo Capello 14 5 Johnny Cecotto 7 Antonio Tamburini 7 Gabriele Tarquini 7 6 Fabrizio De Simone 6 Nicola Larini 6 Roberto Ravaglia 6 7 Roberto Colciago 5 8 Gianni Morbidelli 4 9 Stefano Modena 3 10 Frank Biela 2 11 Gary Ayles 1

Manufactures Total 1 Alfa Romeo 49 2 BMW 47 3 Audi 37 4 Peugeot 6 5 Opel 1

Driver statistics

Driver Pole Position Victory 2nd Place 3rd Place Total Podium Total Race 1 Fabrizio Giovanardi 24 29 29 17 75 140 2 Emanuele Naspetti 5 26 25 11 62 120 3 Emanuele Pirro 3 17 12 1 30 46 4 Rinaldo Capello 5 14 16 20 50 120 5 Johnny Cecotto 5 7 11 7 25 60 6 Gabriele Tarquini 5 7 5 6 18 30 7 Antonio Tamburini 5 7 1 8 16 62 8 Nicola Larini 1 6 9 11 26 40 9 Roberto Ravaglia 3 6 7 8 21 42 10 Fabrizio De Simone 2 6 6 13 25 60 11 Roberto Colciago 2 5 7 3 15 86 12 Gianni Morbidelli 3 4 0 4 8 44 13 Stefano Modena 3 3 2 1 6 38 14 Frank Biela 2 2 0 1 3 12 15 Gary Ayles 0 1 1 5 7 40 16 Yvan Muller 1 0 5 4 9 20 17 Giorgio Francia 0 0 2 0 2 6 18 Alexander Burgstaller 0 0 1 1 2 40 19 Steve Soper 0 0 1 0 1 2 20 Karl Wendlinger 0 0 0 7 7 20 21 Fabian Peroni 0 0 0 6 6 42 22 Tamara Vidali 1 0 0 2 2 42 23 Amato Ferrari 0 0 0 1 1 40 Alessandro Nannini 0 0 0 1 1 4 Massimo Pigoli 0 0 0 1 1 140 Sandro Sardelli 0 0 0 1 1 40 Manufactures statistics Manufacture Pole Position Victory 2nd Place 3rd Place Total Podium 1 Alfa Romeo 36 49 40 45 134 2 BMW 17 47 54 45 146 3 Audi 13 37 34 36 107 4 Peugeot 4 6 9 12 27 5 Opel 0 1 1 0 2 6 Honda 0 0 2 2 4 Statistics from 1993 to 1999 with D2 Cars See also Superstars Series References ^ "Nuvolari3000.com NEWS, ITCC 2007". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2012. External links News and results List of champions 1987–1999 v t e Super Touring championships
Australian Super Touring Championship	1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Belgian Procar Championship	1994 1995 1996 1997
British Touring Car Championship	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Central European Supertouring Car Championship	1994 1995 1996
Czech Supertouring Car Championship	1996 1997
French Supertouring Championship	1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Super Tourenwagen Cup	1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Italian Superturismo Championship	1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Japanese Touring Car Championship	1994 1995 1996 1997 1998
Guia Race of Macau	1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Portuguese Touring Car Championship	1993 1994
Campeonato de España de Turismos	1994 1995 1996 1997
South African Touring Car Championship	1994 1995 1996
Swedish Touring Car Championship	1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship	1994 1996 1997 1998 1999
European Touring Car Championship	2000 2001
North American Touring Car Championship	1996 1997
South American Super Touring Car Championship	1997 1998 1999 2000
Touring Car World Cup	1993 1994 1995