WTCC peace breaks out

BMW and SEAT have reached an agreement that should see both return to the World Touring Car Championship in 2009. An impasse over petrol-diesel equivalency had cast a cloud over the series’ future, but BMW, SEAT and Chevrolet bosses have reached a compromise that should be ratified in early November.

The power of the turbo-diesel SEATs will be pegged back by a small reduction in the diameter of their air-restrictors and, most likely, a cut in their rev limit. Jonathan Ashman, president of the FIA Touring Car Commission, said: ”All the manufacturers agreed that we needed to find an equivalence. We did not want a championship whereby you had to run a diesel to be competitive.”