First ever race weekend for TTA – Racing Elite League

The newly created TTA – Racing Elite League hosts their first ever race weekend at Karlskoga Motorstadion in Sweden this weekend. The five main teams with BMW Dealer Team WestCoast Racing, Volvo Polestar Racing, Flash Engineering and Brovallen Design fields a total of 16 ars in the main class TTA.

The series was launched less than a year ago and has since then attracted the major big drivers from the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, in which the teams competed last year. The split was done due to, among many reason, different views on regulations.

Favorite team and drivers ahead of the season start has in Swedish media been Volvo Polestar Racing with their strong line up of triple STCC champion Fredrik Ekblom, double STCC champion Tommy Rustad, single STCC champion Thed Björk and last year’s factory WTCC Volvo driver Robert Dahlgren.
“I am ready for this weekend. But the pre-season has been somewhat of a different story with just three test days. But it is same for all and I have no doubt that we have a fantastic season ahead of us,” said Ekblom.

While Volvo might have been favorites in media, it was Saab driver Robin Rudholm who was fastest in testing at Karlskoga for Flash Engineering.
“I became friends with the car after just three laps. The car really suits my driving style. We’ve had a couple of really good test days and while it is early to draw any conclusions, I am aiming for the very top and I think we have a good shot at it,” said Rudholm.

Rudholm is one of four Saab 9-3 drivers with Mattias Andersson as team mate and Linus Ohlsson and Daniel Haglöf in satellite team Team Tidö/PWR Racing.

The final test day at Anderstorp Raceway, which the series will visit in two weeks, was topped by BMW Dealer Team WestCoast Racing drivers Fredrik Larsson and Richard Göransson.
“It is always nice to be fastest. But we have a lot of work ahead of us, just to get to know the car. But the feeling is good and I am so glad to be behind the wheel of a proper race car. I am sure that we are going to provide the spectators with an excellent show,” said Göransson.

The Volvo S60 TTA, Saab 9-3 TTA and the BMW SR is going to face opposition from four Citroën C5 TTAs of Brovallen Design. Stefan Söderberg showed strong form during testing with stable times in the top five.
“I am happy with our pace and I am really enjoying the car. It is not going to be easy in the first couple of race, but I still think that we can give the others a really good run for their money,” said Söderberg.

The other three Citroëns are driven by former Chevrolet STCC driver Viktor Hallrup, GT racer Jan Brunstedt and a fourth driver whose identity is going to be revealed later today.

The TTA – Racing Elite League runs one race of 40 minutes per race weekend. All cars share the same technical base with a mid-mounted V6 of 3.5 liters, producing just over 400 BHP.
“With these regulations, it is no longer about penalty weights, dispensations or different ground configurations of road cars that have to be equalized in different ways. The fastest driver with the best team is going to win, end of story. With this we are bringing motorsport one step closer to other sports where the best man or woman always win and is most certainly not penalized for it. We have taken a concept from paper to action in less than 10 months and we hope that we are going to get a fantastic first season,” said Jan “Flash” Nilsson, one of four founders of the TTA.

Qualifying for the TTA starts at 11.00 on Saturday with the race start at 15.15 CET.