Scott McLaughlin quickly on the pace on his STCC debut

Polestar Cyan Racing’s Scott McLaughlin was third fastest on his first run in the team’s Volvo S60 at the Skövde airport circuit in the 30-minute first test session, just a tenth of a second behind his experienced STCC team-mates Robert Dahlgren and Richard Göransson.

The 22-year-old New Zealander found the new circuit somewhat different to the Australasian circuits he’s used to, with the STCC starting its season for the second year in a row around the small airfield circuit in central-southern Sweden.

“It’s a cool setting, I’ve never driven on an airport before except in an aero test in Australia,” said McLaughlin to TouringCarTimes. “The cars are really cool, exactly how I’d thought they’d be, lots of grip and a little bit less power than my car at home.

“I’ve driven a Porsche at the Bathurst 12 Hours and I feel like this is very similar, so I felt like it wouldn’t take too long to adapt, but obviously it takes time to find that half-a-tenth there to see where I’m lacking on my team-mates. They’re fast too, and we’ve looked at their data, so we’ll see how we go in the next one.”

McLaughlin was three-tenths up on his next closest rival, Mattias Andersson’s Dacia SE, and is looking to find more pace in the next test session, with the circuit only gathering more grip as the day goes on.

“I tapped the wall and just trying to find the limit of the track, and as it’s not a purpose-built track, the rubber is just going to keep getting better and better, so we’ve just got to wait until qually later on and not make any major changes,” he added.