Photo: STCC Media

PWR Racing aiming to move up into the World Touring Car Cup

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STCC championship winning squad PWR Racing hope to make a move onto the world stage in 2019, with the Swedish squad evaluating a move into the WTCR – World Touring Car Cup in 2019 with its Cupra TCRs.

The relatively young team was launched in 2012 and began racing in the Swedish touring car breakaway series TTA – Racing Elite League, before joining the STCC as the series merged 2013.

PWR Racing then partnered with SEAT in 2016 with a Solution-F-based León STCC, before securing the 2017 drivers’ title as the championship switched to TCR regulations with former Volvo factory driver Robert Dahlgren, who had about-turned on a decision to retire to compete with Peter ‘Poker’ Wallenberg and Daniel Haglöf’s Vikmanshyttan-based team.

The SEAT Sweden dealer-backed outfit now lead both the drivers’ and teams’ titles in this year’s STCC, with team owner and driver Daniel Haglöf saying they hope to continue to grow next year, with the WTCR a clear target for the operation.

“We’re looking at it for next year. Our main focus of course is to win this year’s STCC, but after that I hope we can also look at racing in WTCR – I think we should be able to do a good job there,” said Haglöf to TouringCarTimes.

“We won the drivers’ title last year, and I promised SEAT we’d win the teams’ title this year. Next year, we’re also committed to run with SEAT in STCC, but we’re also looking at what else we can do, and I think the WTCR is a logical next step.”

The team run four cars, now badged as Cupras in the 2018 STCC for drivers Haglöf, Dahlgren, Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky and top rookie Philip Morin.

Two teams compete with Cupra machinery in WTCR, the pseudo-factory squad effectively being the Campos Racing team, which runs with financial backing from the WTCR’s naming rights sponsor Oscaro and fields 24-year-old touring car ‘stalwart’ Pepe Oriola. The other Cupra team is Zengõ Motorsport, the Hungarian team which enjoyed much success in its earlier WTCC years with Norbert Michelisz, and continues to support Hungarian racing talent.