Photo: Mediaempire

STCC set to confirm a switch to TCR for 2017 or 2018 in June

By

The Scandinavian Touring Car Championship is set to become the first major national touring car championship to adopt TCR, or FIA TCN2, regulations during the summer, with introduction either next year or the following year, replacing the Solution F silhouette cars they’ve used since 2013.

The Swedish championship featured a ten car grid at its opening round last weekend at Skövde, with a handful of additional cars expected to be added during the season. Although the quality of the grid is at its strongest in a few years, with a three-car Volvo factory programme, and entries from former champion Johan Kristoffersson and Super GT driver Bjorn Wirdheim, the dwindling numbers and growing availability of cars being built for the various TCR series across the globe has drawn the STCC to the formula.

The STCC also saw two new manufacturers represented on the grid last weekend, with PWR Racing tying up a deal with SEAT Sweden to run three cars with Kristoffersson as their star announcement, and with Brovallen Design switching to Ford, with both SEAT and Ford already represented in TCR with cars build by SEAT Sport and FRD Sport.

“We have a timetable, I think we’re going to have a decision and announce it in June this year,” said STCC CEO Jonas Lundin to TouringCarTimes. “Everything is not set yet, but we will announce after Mantorp Park. To be realistic, the decision is whether we want to go for TCR next year or the year after rather than any other regulation.”

With a number of manufacturers already building cars for TCR, including Honda, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Opel, Subaru and Kia, with further announcements expected, the missing part of the puzzle is Swedish manufacturer Volvo, which field three cars in the championship and have just embarked on a World Touring Car Championship programme with a TC1 specification Volvo S60.

“The key thing of course is Volvo,” added Lundin. “We want to have Volvo in the series of course, and for now they don’t have any TCR cars. But of course, we can’t just rely on Volvo; they’ve always been a strong part of the STCC, but if we can get six or seven other manufacturers in the new regulation that will be great.

“We already know that we have three or four teams who are waiting for the new regulations who are not racing now, so I think we can look forward to a grid of 15, 16, 17 cars for the first year, which would be great.”