20th STCC season starts this weekend at new airport circuit
The 20th STCC season starts this weekend at a brand new airport circuit located at the Swedish city Skövde. A total of 14 drivers are entered from BMW, Dacia, Kia, Saab and Volvo. While the field might seem small, the fight for the title is expected to be as tough as ever.
All eyes are on reigning double champion Thed Björk who has set out to become the first ever driver in the championship to secure three consecutive titles this year.
”My goal is to become the first with three straight titles. But that is not something that I am focusing on now, but rather to do my best and score the best possible in each race. And that is no easy task, I have driven too many STCC seasons to take anything for granted and the opposition in the top is as tough as ever this year,” said Björk.
The driver that came closest to Björk last year was WestCoast Racing driver Fredrik Larsson, finishing in second place, and was fastest in the last day of the official pre-season test two weeks ago.
”I beat Thed at parts of the season last year, but at the end he pulled away and got past in the standings. If we can start the year just as strong as last year and get some help from Göransson and Andersson to steal points from Björk, then I think we can get him,” said Larsson.
Team Tidö driver Richard Göransson, the most successful STCC driver ever with four titles and 39 victories, has also set his sights on stealing the title from Björk this year.
”We have everything in place for us to come a long way this season. I know how hard the team has worked with the small details during the winter and that is just what is needed to win at this level. This is our second season together and the tests have confirmed that the speed is good. I have also chosen to step down my racing outside of STCC this season in order to really focus fully on this. How far that will take us is of course impossible to say, but I am going for the title,” said Göransson.
Björk is not only facing stiff competition from competing teams, but also from within Volvo Polestar Racing with Fredrik Ekblom hunting revenge from last year. Ekblom seemed to be the driver to beat early in the season, but lost out on technical issues and incidents, seeing him drop to third in the championship despite scoring as many victories as Björk.
”Last year was tough and there were many factors to it. But I have put that behind me. I had the pace to win all season last year and I had a great pre-season test this year. I am more than ready for the season start,” said Ekblom.
The above listed drivers are all former champions. But there are drivers still waiting for their first title that are aiming to get in the mix this year. One of them is Dacia Dealer Team driver Mattias Andersson who has shown promising form over the last couple of seasons.
”I have a good feeling ahead of the season where Björk, Ekblom, Larsson and Göransson have been appointed favourites by many. That is fine by me, I like to be the dark horse. My goal is to fight for the top three in the championship and score the first STCC victory for Dacia,” said Andersson.
Another dark horse to look out for is PWR Racing’s Emma Kimiläinen. The Finn starts her second season this year and after a frustrating 2014 with glimpses of speed, 2015 could be the year for Kimiläinen to seriously challenge for consistent top five finishes.
”I am aiming for a top five finish overall. Last year was to learn, I hadn’t raced a car for four years ahead of that. But things are different this year and I hope to take my first victory,” said Kimiläinen.
There are a number of new drivers in the championship this year. Team Kia has changed their entire line-up for 2015 with young newcomers in the form of former single seater driver Kevin Aabol, the youngest ever STCC driver Erik Johansson and female racer Emelie Liljeström.
The season start of 2015 is going to be challenging on another level for all drivers in the championship as they will start on a circuit no one has raced on before: STCC Volvo Race Skövde.
The final details of the circuit are yet to be released other than the map as can be seen below. The characteristics are similar to the airport circuit in Östersund, raced from 2012 to 2013, and is likely to be fast but with varying degrees of grip with the type of surface changing at many places.
This will no doubt provide an uncertainty for all drivers, especially as the championship has changed tyres from Yokohama to Michelin and we might not see the drivers on top that we expect. The race weekend starts on Friday with testing and qualifying, this time with the reversed grid being moved to the grid of race two. Saturday features two races of 20 minutes each, just as last year.
2015 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship Entry List
No – Driver – Team Name – Car
#1 – Thed Björk – Volvo Polestar Racing – Volvo S60
#3 – Richard Göransson – Team Tidö – Saab 9-3
#4 – Fredrik Larsson – WestCoast Racing – BMW SR
#6 – Erik Jonsson – Sportpromotion – BMW SR
#8 – Roger Samuelsson – Team Tidö – Saab 9-3
#9 – Kevin Aabol – Team Kia – Kia Optima
#10 – Erik Johansson – Team Kia – Kia Optima
#11 – Fredrik Ekblom – Volvo Polestar Racing – Volvo S60
#13 – Carl Philip Bernadotte – Volvo Polestar Racing – Volvo S60
#20 – Mattias Andersson – Dacia Dealer Team – Dacia SE
#37 – Daniel Haglöf – PWR Racing – Saab 9-3
#93 – Emma Kimiläinen – PWR Racing – Saab 9-3
#95 – Emelie Liljeström – Team Kia – Kia Optima*
# – Rasmus Mårthen – Team Kia – Kia Optima*
* = Not entered for full season
STCC Volvo Race Skövde Timetable
Friday 8th May
10:20–10:50 Test 1
13:10–13:40 Test 2
16:00–16:15 Qualifying 1
16:20–16:40 Qualifying 2
Saturday 9th May
12:20–12:45 Race 1 (25 min)
15:05–15:30 Race 2 (25 min)
All times are in CET.
