07.02.2004 OREGON TEAM ANNOUNCE THEIR THREE CAR ALL ITALIAN DRIVER LINE UP FOR THEIR FULL ETCC PROGRAM

After several successful years in the Renault Sport Trophy, Italy-based Oregon Team have finalised the programme for their maiden season in the FIA European Touring Car Championship.

The team will take part in the 2004 ETCC with three Alfa Romeo 156 GTA SuperTouring racers, in the hands of three Italian drivers, Luca Rangoni, Salvatore Tavano and Michele Bartyan.

The three new pilots undertook stints at the wheel of the team’s only car which, painted in the Oregon’s fuchsia-yellow-green livery, tested in Valencia on Wednesday and Thursday.

Rangoni, 35-years-old and from Bologna, was Italian Formula 3 champion in 1995, and recently dominated the scene in the Renault Sport Clio V6 Trophy, claiming four consecutive European titles from 2000 to 2003. Tavano, a 23-year-old from Siracusa, is the team’s only driver who had already raced in the ETCC, as he took part in the 2001 and 2002 seasons, plus occasional races in 2003, with Alfa Romeo 147 and Honda Civic cars. Last year he won the Italian Super Production Championship in an Alfa Romeo 147. Bartyan, a 23-year-old from Lodi, won the Brno round of the 2003 Renault Sport Clio 2-litre European Cup, and was eventually placed tenth in the series’ final classification.

“We have a lot to learn, but we are here to stay. Ours is a long term programme, which starts from the Independents Trophy. However, we are starting in the right way, with three former Autodelta 2003 cars, three good drivers, an experienced technical director like Bruno Chiazzaro, and a good support from N-Technology, Alfa Romeo's racing department. Therefore we are aiming for some good results,” team principal Jerry Canevisio declared.