The Bureau, chaired by Jonathan Ashman, president of the FIA Touring Car Commission, oversees the sporting regulations and ensures that costs do not spiral out of control, as they have done in so many other motor racing championships.

Ashman said: “The Bureau is there to assist a manufacturer to cost-effectively adapt a road car into a racing car. Ordinarily, manufacturers would have to resort to expensive solutions to get them racing. But we can vary the regulations to make sure a manufacturer can be competitive without spending lots of money.”

This does not mean that the Bureau makes decisions which settle races. Rather it helps a manufacturer to get into a position from which it can begin to be competitive.

As Ashman put it: “We help them to get onto the bottom rung of the competitive ladder. But then getting them to the top is up to the team and the drivers.”

The other members of the Bureau are Gabriele Cadringher, President of the FIA Manufacturers' Commission, and Jacques Berger, President of the FIA Technical Commission. All decisions made between the three have to be unanimous.

It is certainly working as the price of an average competitive touring car has only risen by 10 per cent over the last four years. Much of this is because under the regulations there are not a lot of areas to throw money at. Ashman said: “We don’t use major electronics or hydraulics so there is no opportunity to spend in those areas.”

But rather than these regulations taking away from the racing, they have increased the championship’s popularity. The first event of 2006 took place in Monza at the beginning of April with a field of 35 cars and a crowd of 45,000.

All four manufacturers committed to the Manufacturers' championship had a competitive start. BMW won the first race with reigning World Champion Andy Priaulx. Alfa Romeo won the second race with Augusto Farfus Jr. SEAT is leading both the Drivers Championship (with Yvan Muller, who finished second in both races) and the Manufacturers' Championship. Chevrolet claimed its first podium result since it joined the championship last year.

The balance in performance is provided by the sporting regulations using two basic systems. The first is a weight handicap where drivers receive ballast according to the points scored in the previous meeting and in the championship classification. The second is the reverse grid system, where the top-eight drivers classified in Race One are placed in reverse order on the grid for Race Two.

These two systems together are so effective that last year there were 12 different winners in 20 races. In Monza this year there was just one second separating the first 15 cars in qualifying, and that was over an exceptionally long two-minute lap.

It has all helped to attract audiences to the championship. Research agency TNS Sport forecasts that WTCC will attract a cumulative audience of over 450 million viewers this year. That compares with 320 million in 2005. The figure is even more impressive given that it is just for dedicated WTCC programming and does not include general news coverage.

The increase is a result of stronger worldwide television exposure. As well as its contract with pan-European broadcaster Eurosport, WTCC has struck new terrestrial deals this year in China, Russia and Turkey to name a few. It is also present on terrestrial television in Europe’s five major television markets France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

In another coup, the WTCC is the first motor racing championship to be broadcast in High Definition. Not even Formula One can boast that yet.

The impressive media exposure has been a prominent factor in attracting competitors. As Ashman said: “The biggest factor for the manufacturers is media coverage. The television figures are very strong. And the racing is so competitive that when you watch the TV broadcast you just get a screen full of cars.”

It all bodes well for a season which will see ten events run in as many countries across the world. No doubt, other motor racing championships could learn a lot from the organizers of the WTCC.