Thread: STCC 2008 - News and Rumours

The season has ended in the Swedish Touring Car Championship and work has begun for the next season.

Entry list for 2008 (regularly updated):

West Coast Racing - BMW 320si
1. Fredrik Ekblom
2. Robin Rudholm

Flash Engineering - BMW 320si
1. Richard G?ransson
2. Jan "Flash" Nilsson

Polestar Racing - Volvo C30
1. Robert Dahlgren
2. Tommy Rustad

Honda Racing - Honda Accord
1. Tomas Engstr?m
2. Thed Bj?rk

Team Nordic Fine Art - SEAT Leon
1. Roger Eriksson

IPS Motorsport - Peugeot 308
1. Johan Stureson

MAGP - Alfa Romeo 156
1. Mattias Andersson

Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden - Chevrolet Lacetti
1. Tomas Schie

Artman Racing - Honda Accord (will only participate in the opening round)
1. Andrey Smetsky
2. Alexander Lvov

??? - ???
1. Tobias Johansson

??? - Vauxhall / SEAT / BMW / Volvo ???
1. Joakim Frid

Team Sturup Raceway ??? SEAT Leon
1. Carsten Leveau ???
2. Gunnar Kristensen ???

Elgh Motorsport ??? BMW 320si
1. Carl Rosenblad ???


Driver's championship 2007:
1. Fredrik Ekblom (West Coast Racing, BMW 320si E90) 62 points
2. Robert Dahlgren (Polestar Racing, Volvo S60 Flexifuel) 51 points
3. Richard G?ransson (Flash Engineering, BMW 320si E90) 48 points
4. Thed Bj?rk (KMS, Audi A4) 41 points
5. Jan "Flash" Nilsson (Flash Engineering, BMW 320si E90) 34 points
6. Robin Rudholm (West Coast Racing, BMW 320si E90) 33 points
7. Frank Stippler (KMS, Audi A4) 30 points
8. Johan Stureson (IPS Motorsport, Peugeot 407) 21 points
9. Alexander Storckenfeldt (Polestar Racing, Volvo S60 Flexifuel) 20 points
10. Mattias Andersson (MAGP, Alfa Romeo 156) 19 points
11. Tommy Rustad (Opel Team Sweden, Opel Astra GTC) 17 points
12. Tomas Engstr?m (Engstr?m Motorsport, Honda Accord Euro-R) 16 points
13. David Bj?rk (Team CaWalli, BMW 320i E46) 15 points
14. Tommy Kristoffersson (KMS, Audi A4) 11 points
15. Roger Eriksson (Picko Troberg Racing, BMW 320i) 5 points
15. Joakim Frid (Team Euromaster, Opel Astra) 5 points
17. Fredrik Lestrup (Picko Troberg Racing, BMW 320i E46) 1 point

Privateer cup:
1. Joakim Frid, Opel Astra
2. Tobias Tegelby, BMW 320i E46
3. Viktor Huggare, BMW 320i E46
4. Ronnie Brandt, Volvo S60

Today Volvo confirmed a three year programme together with the STCC Volvo team Polestar Racing. Starting next year Volvo will ditch the S60 in favour of the C30. The first prototype will begin testing in two days time with Robert Dahlgren behind the wheel.

The car will use the same bio-ethanol engine as used in this year's Volvo S60.

There was no news regarding any potential WTCC program or regarding the second seat.

"The development of the new racing car will be done in co-operation between Volvo Sweden and Polestar Racing, that successfully have run our STCC programme. It is too early to give any detailed information of the building of the car. But the goal is very clear - we are going to develop a winner," said Derek Crabb from Volvo Motorsport."

News from touringcartimes.com

I just LOVE the design of these new generation Volvos, they all look fooking great! No more those Lego shapes

Originally Posted by Harakimi

I just LOVE the design of these new generation Volvos, they all look fooking great! No more those Lego shapes

Yeah, the C30 has grown on me lately.

I'm not too sure I'm a big fan of tiny cars in touring cars and since the C30 is a three-door car they won't be allowed in WTCC unless they really whine to FIA. I'd much rather seen a S40, but I see the point in Volvo bringing something newer to the track.

Johan Stureson had a pretty horrid season in his Peugeot 307.

For 2008 he's looking to build a new car and has put his 307 up for sale. Peugeot are launching the 308 this winter and Stureson and his team IPS Motorsport wants to build a S2000 car from that. Peugeot are interested in the project but work will not start until the future rules for STCC have been shown. If there are rule changes for 2009 they will not start building a new car just for one season.

In 2008 one of the rounds will probably take place in the city of G?teborg (that's Gothenburg for you non locals).

The G?teborg City Race is not yet finalized for 2008 but the city council and STCC have agreed to try it. Together with a research project called Race Zero they will try to make a race event with minimal impact on the environment.

I've attatched a pic of the proposed circuit layout.

This will be the first street circuit race in STCC history.

The KMS team wants new Audi A4's for 2008 but the problem is that Audi Germany is too busy building their new DTM cars and have probably no time to build new S2000 cars at the same time.

KMS struggled a bit during this season and the car is not getting any younger. With KMS having been very close to Audi since the 80's it's hard to think they'd go for another car brand. SEAT would be an option as they are from the same company but SEAT's not anywhere near such a big brand in Sweden as Audi is.

Perhaps they will run the old cars and just wait for 2009, but the question is would Audi Germany want them to run non-competitive cars?

And I'm continuing the monolog.

Flash's E90 sold to Finland
2007 team champions Flash Engineering has sold one of its BMW 320si E90's and their other car is up for sale as well. The car sold will end up in the Finnish S2000 championship and will be run by Print Sport Racing with Mikko Eskelinen as driver. No doubt a seriously quick car for the Finnish championship then.

No word or rumours about Flash switching brands for 2008 so there is probably two new 2008 spec E90's coming in.

Thed Bj?rk to Volvo?
The 2006 STCC champion Thed Bj?rk is rumoured to have ended the year on the wrong foot with the Audi team of Kristoffersson Motorsport and is now rumoured to be in line for the second Volvo seat at Polestar Racing.

Polestar Racing's budget has been increased thanks to Volvo's decision of racing with the C30. This means that both Volvo seat will be fully paid drives. The last two seasons Alexander Storckenfeldt's been bringing money to the team for his seat. Now Thed Bj?rk, Daniel Hagl?f and Storckenfeldt are among the names rumoured for the seat next to Robert Dahlgren.

Originally Posted by saltysurprise

I wish I had more to say, but I get virtually NO coverage here. I feel so left out It's getting to be satellite time..

While you're waiting for satellite.