By Chia Han Keong

CAUGHT the motor-racing bug? Thinking of where to find more action after the Formula One season ends on Sunday?

Then head over to Macau for the season-ending races to the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) on Nov 16.

Now in its 21st year, the WTCC is widely recognised as the third-most-important motor- racing competition - after the Formula One World Championship and the World Rallying Championship.

This year's season will come to a rip-roaring climax at the Macau Grand Prix and, just like last month's F1 Singapore Grand Prix, it will also be a street circuit - right alongside its glitziest hotels and casinos.

The Grand Prix will feature touring cars, which are essentially heavily-modified street cars.

For example, the Chevrolet team uses race cars that are very similar to the Optra Magnum models available in its showrooms worldwide.

But while the touring cars are not as fast as the F1 race cars, they do offer more exciting overtaking opportunities.

Said Alain Menu, race driver for the Chevrolet team: "With a touring car, there is little chance of interlocking of wheels, so we can race side-by-side or even lean on each other - although sometimes that goes a little too far and cars go off the track!

"But that is the attraction of touring cars. It makes for livelier races most of the time."

Indeed, while F1 races can go on for almost two hours and around 60 laps, WTCC ones are short and snappy. For the Macau GP, there will be two races of nine laps each.

Menu, who won the first race in last year's edition, knows very well the key to winning the race - excel in qualifying.

Said the Swiss: "You can overtake where the track is wide, but as soon as you go up the hilly stretch, it is very twisting and narrow, so it is impossible to overtake.

"We got pole position last year, and that is the trick, really - to qualify well. We have a car with a very good overall package, slightly improved, and we are hopeful that we can do well again."

The Chevrolet race team has been doing very well this season, lying in third place behind Seat and BMW despite having only three racers - the fewest among the manufacturers taking part in the WTCC.

And just how thrilling is racing in a touring car as compared to a Formula One car?

Said Menu, who test-drove for the Williams F1 team in 1995: "The F1 car is the ultimate race car, and the thrill is far greater than the touring car.

"That said, driving a touring car is much more challenging.

You have less power and less grip, so any slide will cost you more time because it takes longer to recover.

"You need to be very precise to keep the car under control."

Indeed, it all adds up to an exciting weekend of races, as Macau comes alive with the roar of engines along its boulevards.

And Menu has one valuable piece of advice for all Macau GP race drivers.

"Don't hit the wall!" he said with a laugh.

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