Chevy chase in Sweden

If WTCC is looking more and more like a one make championship, the Swedish Touring Car Championship is continuously expanding its variety of manufacturers. This years most anticipated, and if the competitors are to be believed, the most feared driver/car-combination has to be Nicklas Karlsson and Chevrolet. It is more than two years ago since Nicklas Karlsson said goodbye to STCC.

He won the very last race of the season at Mantorp Park in his Alfa Romeo – and the headaches he got from that years adventure was not due to the champagne. Rather, the car troubled Nicklas all through the year. Still, with that last race he showed his capacity, well known to the the insiders, but maybe less so to others. Nicklas is seriously quick and this year he is back – behind the wheel of a brand new Chevrolet Lacetti due to a last minute deal struck with General Motors Nordic division.

Nicklas and his business associate, Eric Lindgren, went to the official WTCC-test at Valencia to meet up with Ray Mallock Limited, RML, to finalise the specifications of the car. “The car has to be adapted to the Swedish regulations, says Eric Lindgren. But apart from that it will be an identical car to the ones run by Alain Menu and Nicola Larini in the WTCC.”

The car will be built and prepared by Ray Mallock Limited and Nicklas and his Swedish Chevrolet team is looking for as deep a relationship as possible with RML. Given that there will be six cars competing in Europe, three in WTCC, two in DTC, the Danish championship, and one in STCC, there will be lots of input for RML.

“We will use RML’s engineers during the season,” says Nicklas. “But RML will lead the development of the car.” But to what extent RML will support the Swedish Chevrolet team is yet to be decided. “We are going to negotiate,” says Lindgren. “We want as much of their staff available at the races as possible but it is dependent on RML’s other commitments, of course.”

The Swedish team will be run by Nicklas’s own team, NIKA Racing, but it is not decided yet under what banner the team will fly, although it is not unreasonable to assume that the brand name “Chevrolet” will figure. It is also believed that the car will use the same paint scheme as the WTCC cars.

The Chevrolet is supposed to suit the twisty circuits on the STCC calendar with its good traction out of slow corners. And Nicklas was very impressed by RML during his visit at Valencia. “My impression of RML was very favorable, says Nicklas. Everyone worked hard, the car was fast, as the times showed, and they still have more to come out of it.”

So why not take part from the beginning of the season? The deal with GM was not finalised until late last year and Nicklas won’t take part in STCC until mid season at Anderstorp. Eric Lindgren says that this year is a buildup to 2008 and the goal for this year is to establish the team and get everything settled. “We’re not going to stick our necks out and promise results. We will do our very best this year but it will be under learning conditions,” says Lindgren.

A quite understandable position to take for a new team but what are the real chances for Nicklas and his Chevrolet? Well, given that the team needs to gel, and understand the car, it’s unreasonable to expect Nicklas to blow the doors off the competition, but rest assured that Nicklas will make an impression.

His Chevrolet will be a lot better proposition than last years Opel. Expect him to perform, at his worst, as good as he did in the Opel when it was at its best. And occasionally, when Nicklas finds the sweet spot, and the Chevy will perform up to its potential, he will surely be fighting for podium finishes. And given that he won with that troublesome Alfa, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him on top of the podium, at least once this season. And in the long term? Nicklas/Chevy/RML can be a killer combo.

Compared to the BMW-teams, who are limited to buying upgrades from the factory, there is a potential for a deeper level of collaboration between Nicklas and RML. If realised, Nicklas is a force to be reckoned with in 2008.