World Touring Car Championship set to kick off in Brazil

The calendar is already showing March and the weather is hinting at spring, so the racing season must be about to explode. NASCAR is already underway, F1 will kick off this weekend in Australia, and ALMS at Sebring the week after. Series like Speed GT and Touring Car, however, will really have the TiVo working overtime. The FIA's World Touring Car Championship is one such series, which begins its 22-race season in Brazil this Sunday. Along with Formula One and the World Rally Championship, WTCC is the only worldwide competition sanctioned by the FIA. That says something about the growing popularity of this type of racing.

Previously a European series, the racing has spread across the globe and is truly a World event for '07. Besides the first two rounds in Curitiba, Brazil, the 2007 WTCC season will see racing at new circuits like Zandvoort, Netherlands; Anderstorp, Sweden; and the street circuits of Pau, France, and Porto, Portugal. Valencia, Brno, Oschersleben, Monza, and Brands Hatch continue on as does Maucau, which will host the finale in November.

Britain's Andy Priaulx, back-to-back WTCC champion, hopes to three-peat this season and thereby make history. After winning the European Championship in '04, the 32-year-old racer went on to win the World Touring Car Championship in 2005 and 2006. He'd be the first British driver to win three FIA world titles in a row. We can't wait to see how the season plays out.

[Source: BMW via AutoMotoPortal]