Fiat Claims First Ever Racing Championship in North America
Heading into this weekend’s Pirelli World Challenge season finale in Sonoma, California, Jonathan Start and the Fiat 500 team looked poised to claim the inaugural B-Spec Championship. A win would also mark the first-ever series championship in North America for the Italian automaker.
Start entered the race with a 41-point advantage and clinched the championship after a pair of fourth-place finishes in Saturday’s back-to-back races, and a fifth place finish in Sunday’s 40-minute timed event. It was the first time Start raced at Sonoma and his efforts were enough to claim Fiat the championship in the first season of B-Spec racing.
Back in April when the season first started, the Michigan-based driver got the number-00 Fiat 500 off to a fast start in the championship race by winning back-to-back events at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.
“Congratulations to Jonathan and his team for capturing the inaugural World Challenge Touring Car B-spec series championship,” said Tim Kuniskis, Head of the FIAT Brand for North America, Chrysler Group LLC. “We’re proud to see that their hard work paid off and that the solid engineering behind our Cinquecento is not only able to successfully compete in Europe, but also to win titles in America.”
GALLERY: Pirelli World Challenge Fiat 500
Jason Siu began his career in automotive journalism in 2003 with Modified Magazine, a property previously held by VerticalScope. As the West Coast Editor, he played a pivotal role while also extending his expertise to Modified Luxury & Exotics and Modified Mustangs. Beyond his editorial work, Jason authored two notable Cartech books. His tenure at AutoGuide.com saw him immersed in the daily news cycle, yet his passion for hands-on evaluation led him to focus on testing and product reviews, offering well-rounded recommendations to AutoGuide readers. Currently, as the Content Director for VerticalScope, Jason spearheads the content strategy for an array of online publications, a role that has him at the helm of ensuring quality and consistency across the board.
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pretty small model.