Clinching the Drivers Championship by three points, Giovanardi and team mates Tom Chilton and Alain Menu also secured the Manufacturers BTCC title for the Luton marque.

The fantastic achievement was a team effort and, with victory decided by just hundredths-of-a-second, the development expertise provided by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) was absolutely vital.

Over the last three years the processor manufacturer has supported Triple Eight Race Engineering (888), the Greatworth team responsible for Vauxhall’s motorsport operations, in developing cutting-edge technology using FireGL graphic cards which employ accelerator technology to improve design, engineering and assembly - all of which are key components in the creation of a winning race car.

The cards also enable the design and testing of virtual working models of each race car, which allows 888’s team of engineers to continually assess their performance and potential improvements at each stage.

“Every millisecond counts in motor racing, and we’ve been working closely with 888 to help design the Vauxhall Vectra in minute detail so that it was created to excel and ultimately win,” said Rob Jamieson of AMD. “We are proud to support such a successful championship-winning team again and congratulate Giovanardi on his victory.”

Franck Marie, Commercial and Marketing Director at 888 added: "This victory is a real testament to the hard work from everyone involved, as well as our sponsors and technical partners. We thank AMD for its support in making this season a success, playing an instrumental part in being able to design the new Vectra and turn it into a championship-winning race car. Now that the number one is back on our cars, we are really looking forward to developing our relationship with AMD for 2008 and beyond."

888 first added AMD’s FireGL graphics cards to its high-tech toolbox of eight Autodesk Inventor-based CAD workstations in 2005 to improve its 3D rendering capabilities, speed and reliability. 888 also uses AMD powered laptops and servers and implementing Opteron workstations.

About AMD
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