The 1997 Italian Superturismo Championship was the eleventh edition of the Italian Superturismo Championship. The season began in Monza on 20 April and finished in Vallelunga on 12 October, after ten rounds.
Season summary
Emanuele Naspetti and his BMW 320i dominated since the begin of the season achieving an impressive score of 18 podiums (10 victories, 7 seconds and 1 third place) on a total of 20 races.
Naspetti lead the standing since the first round and he won the championship after the first race of 8th round in Varano de Melegari with still 5 races to do; the BMW won the constructors' championship, while Massimo Pigoli took the privateers' trophy in his BMW 320i.
Fabrizio Giovanardi on the wheel of old Alfa Romeo 155 was the main contender with 5 victories but due to a bad start with 4 DNF in the first 8 races, he was not able to fight for the title until the end of the season.
The 1996 Italian Champion Rinaldo Capello and his Audi A4 Quattro were not competitive after FIA decided that Audi had to carry 30kg extra and had to move to FWD from the season 1998.
For these reasons Audi stopped the development of the 4WD and only in wet conditions was Capello able to get a double victory in Varano and one more victory at the slowest track in Binetto.
Beside the top three drivers the championship was animated by the 2 rookies Fabrizio De Simone, Karl Wendlinger, by the return of Antonio Tamburini and by the independent driver Roberto Colciago.
Unlike from the previous year, in 1997 it was removed the rules that counted only the 16 best results so all points were valid for the final standing.
Fabrizio Giovanardi
Karl Wendlinger
Magione