Reversed grid and Super Pole for 2014 STCC

Five rule changes have been introduced for the 2014 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship: Reversed grid, Super Pole, points in qualifying, free testing and two heats for all race weekends.

”There will be more overtaking manoeuvres and tougher racing. This rewards the driver who is quickest and best on overtaking. It will for sure increase the excitement,” said three-time STCC champion Fredrik Ekblom.

The new qualifying format has been changed to two sessions. The first session includes all cars and the eight fastest drivers goes on to the second Super Pole session. In this session the drivers go out one by one for one lap to set their fastest lap time. This decides the grid for the top eight for the second race, with the positions behind being decided by the first qualifying session.

The top ten drivers from the first qualifying session will be reversed for the grid order of race one. Points will be awarded for the first qualifying session according to the same scale as for the races.

The regulations for testing during the season have been changed so that all drivers outside the top six of the championship are free to test.

”I think this is great for teams like us that are in the process of establishing ourselves. We get a better opportunity to build our knowledge bank faster,” said Daniel Haglöf, driver of PWR Racing.

The fifth and final change is that all race weekends will have two race heats, compared to last year when half of the race weekends featured a single 40 minute race.

”These are well thought out changes which does not compromise with the sporting justice. We think that this will create possibilities for a closer field. The smaller teams and new competitors will get a possibility to get out on track quickly and that is good for the growth of the class,” said Bob Huzell, managing director of STCC AB.

The STCC season starts on May 10th at Knutstorp and will be, as last year, televised on the state owned channel SVT.