Laurent Aïello will attend Super Touring Power 2 as a special guest when the smash hit tin top celebration returns to Brands Hatch on 29/30 June. The Frenchman will take part in interviews on the Autosport Stage with opportunities for fans to meet the motorsport icon.
Aïello only contested one season of the British Touring Car Championship during the Super Touring era, but he firmly made his mark. He won 10 races for the works Nissan outfit on his way to the championship crown at the wheel of a Primera GT – three examples of which will be in race action later this month in the hands of Jake Hill, Anthony Reid and Richard Wheeler.
The 1999 title winner’s presence also ties in nicely with the 40th anniversary RML Group celebrations, as it was Ray Mallock’s iconic engineering organisation which operated the factory Nissan effort throughout Aïello's successful title campaign.
Whilst Aïello’s stay in the BTCC was brief, he was already firmly established as one of the planet’s leading saloon car racers by the mid-‘90s. After switching to tin tops from single-seaters, Aïello raced in France and Italy, winning the French Supertouring Championship in 1994 with Peugeot.
A fruitful relationship with manufacturer blossomed through the ‘90s and a switch to the German Super Tourenwagen Cup yielded yet more success. Aïello won 20 STW races during a three-year period, and claimed the title outright in 1997. Whilst he was unable to retain the crown in 1998, Aiello did demonstrate his versatility by winning that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans for Porsche, before joining the BTCC a year later.
Aïello’s single-year stint in the BTCC was followed by a switch to the revived DTM for 2000, and he duly claimed yet another title in an Abt-Audi TT-R in 2002.
Speaking ahead of his appearance, Aïello said: "Hello everybody! I've been missing you so much over the past years. I'm so delighted to join you guys for Super Touring Power and celebrate the RML 40th anniversary!"
Aïello joins a stellar list of guests for the second edition of Super Touring Power, alongside BTCC champions John Cleland and Andy Rouse and 2012 World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff.
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