The STCC 2009 season in pictures

The Swedish Touring Car Championship season of 2009 was exciting and controversial to say the least. Crashes, fights, penalties, close racing, controversy – the season had it all! TouringCarTimes has summarized the season in pictures together with our picture supplier Mediaempire.se.

Ahead of the season there were speculations on which cars and drivers would dominate the season.

The debate was divided in to two camps, more or less, where they either thought that the Volvos would dominate or the BMW’s. And that was a fight to continue for the entire season, until the very last race of the year.

The first race of the year at Mantorp saw both camps getting “right”.

Volvo completely dominated the practice sessions, qualifying and the first race. Robert Dahlgren put fear in to the opposition with being more than seven tenths faster than any other driver in the first practice session.

The first race saw a Volvo 1-2 with Dahlgren ahead of team mate Tommy Rustad.

But there was drama for Dahlgren already on the grid of the first race when an airhose exploded in his Volvo C30, blowing out the windscreen. But while they managed to get Dahlgren out for the first race, his engine blew in the second race.

A first retirement of many due to technical problems for Dahlgren and Volvo.

The second race instead became a BMW story with the German manufacturer claiming a 1-2-3. Richard Göransson won the race ahead of Flash Engineering drivers Thed Björk and Jan “Flash” Nilsson. Björk and Göransson had a really close fight at the end.

The premiere at Mantorp also gave a first glance of the controversy between drivers that were to stay through the season. “Flash” and Mattias Andersson came together, leaving the Alfa Romeo driver fuming.

“This is the third time he hits me while I am in the lead!” said a fuming Andersson to nt.se after the race.

STCC then moved on to Gelleråsen where Robin Rudholm got his revenge with two wins after his two DNF’s from the first race weekend.

This was also the race weekend when Björk took the championship lead, a lead that he was to hold for the entire season until the very last race.

The race at Gelleråsen also saw the tension around the all new bio gas fueled Volkswagen Scirocco hitting an all time high. The STCC organization gave the VW team 80 kilos for not revealing all technical details surrounding the car, something that made lead driver Fredrik Ekblom very angry.

“If we cannot unload the 80 kilos of extra weight, we might as well quit driving,” said Ekblom to Karlskoga-Kuriren.

But, ahead of the race in Gothenburg, STCC and VW seemed to have made progress as 50 kilos were removed.

“There has been a couple of technical changes of the engine and the rear bumper has been changed to the original one (removing the previously dispensed diffuser),” said Haraldsson.

The first race in Gothenburg saw Rustad taking his first victory of the year at the home track of Volvo.

Things were worse, once again, for team mate Dahlgren who started tenth after a grid penalty due to an engine change. Dahlgren seemed to forget that it was yellow flag in one corner, dove on the inside of Göransson, turing the BMW around and received a drive through penalty for it.

The race also saw Rustad’s title rival Björk taking an impressive second place, despite carrying 55 kilos of penalty weight.

The second race in Gothenburg was won by Tomas Engström in the semi-private Honda Accord.

Gothenburg also revealed the bitter rivalry between WestCoast Racing drivers Göransson and Rudholm, as Göransson barged his way past Rudholm in the second race.

“I do not know what he was doing. He must have out braked him self like hell. It is going to be interesting to hear what he has got to say about it” said Rudholm about the incident.

The next race took place at Knutstorp and ahead of the race Göransson was about to beat the all time victory record of STCC, held by “Flash”.

“Flash knows that his record is going to be smoked this year, the question is just when,” said Göransson.

The first race at Knutstorp was won by Dahlgren, starting from pole position.

The second race saw “Flash” making Göransson eating his own words about beating the victory record as “Flash” instead increased his record with another win, his first since 2004.

“This was one of my best victories ever! It was easy today, the car worked perfectly and I was able to do some great overtaking maneuvers as well,” said “Flash”.

While “Flash” celebrated his victory, things were worse for his team mate Björk. The Flash Engineering driver tried to stay on the outside line of Göransson in the fastest corner of the track. Something that resulted in Björk writing off his BMW 320si in the barriers.

The final race ahead of the summer break of the series at Falkenberg saw Volvo continuing their complete domination of the qualifying. Rustad took his first pole of the year.

Rustad also went along to win the race as his team mate Dahlgren retired from the first race and was unable to get out for the second race.

The disaster for Dahlgren and the success for Rustad also raised the question on who was the number one driver in the Volvo team. Previously, Dahlgren was always considered the number one driver of the team.

“I have been focused on supporting Dahlgren, it is in the contract, but now the roles have changed,” said Rustad.

But despite the fact that Rustad had an immense point lead on his team mate, Dahlgren was not keen to admit his new role in the team.

“If I am going to win I need to take all pole positions. And if I win the rest of the races, I have the chance,” said Dahlgren.

After the five week summer break, STCC was back on again at Gelleråsen. Dahlgren claimed his fifth pole position of six possible but did not win the race.

The Volvo driver was hit from behind by “Flash” in the first corner, resulting in Dahlgren having to take the escape road and “Flash” went on to take his 32nd victory.

Volvo and Dahlgren filed a protest against the STCC stewards decision not to penalize “Flash”, a case that they lost.

But Dahlgren got revenge in the second race when he drove through the field to take the victory.

Next up was the only race outside Sweden, on the Våler track in Norway. And it certainly was a good race for the Norwegian spectators as their home driver Rustad won both races.

Rustad’s team mate Dahlgren once again tangled with Göransson, when they were fighting for the lead. Dahlgren dove on the inside, Göransson tried to stay on the outside.

“I am really disappointed, I defended my line and then we just ran out of space,” said Göransson.
“It was so unnecessary,” said Dahlgren.

Knutstorp hosted the penultimate round of the year. A round that was about to go down in history as one of the most controversial ones in the history of STCC.

Though the first race stood in bright contrast to the second one. Göransson won an uneventful first race ahead of a Björk, heavy on penalty weight.

The second race started with controversy in the first corner. Rustad and Göransson came together in the first corner, resulting in four cars spinning. “Flash” and Göransson retired while Rudholm and Rustad were able to continue from the spin.

The stewards penalized Rustad after the race with a 30 second penalty for causing the accident.

But there was more controversy to come. A lot more. Championship leader Björk fought his way up in to the lead, with Dahlgren following close behind.

Björk started to pull away from Dahlgren during the final laps of the race and the Flash Engineering driver seemed to head for a 19 point lead for the final round of the year. And with just 20 points left to fight for, the title was close for the BMW man.

But on the penultimate lap, Dahlgren launched his car in the first corner of the track at Knutstorp. Telemetry after the race showed that Dahlgren moved his brake point 14 meters further compared to his last couple of laps.

Dahlgren carried so much speed that he hit the tyre barriers and retired on the spot. Björk was able to get back up again but was outside the points.

Peugeot driver Johan Stureson inherited the lead and won his first race of the year.
“It was luck, but still simply amazing,” said Stureson after the race to STCC.se.

But the aftermath from the controversial move of Dahlgren was to carry on for long after the race. The STCC organization decided to hand out the hardest penalty ever with minus 10 points in the championship and a yellow card to Dahlgren for the penalty.

Volvo in their turn condemned the decision from the STCC organization and claimed that the race directors were incompetent.

“The decision and after play from this weekend was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but are only a few of many inconsequent acts and decisions from the race directors of STCC AB,” said Alexander Murdzevski from Volvo.

The STCC organization responded with releasing data and new video images of the incident in response and the legal actions Volvo threatened with never came in to play.

The incident also had a strong effect on the popularity of Dahlgren, who in an interview with Dagens Nyheter, one of the biggest daily newspapers in Sweden, said:

“I get hate emails where it says “you can burn in hell”, but it is hard to reply to them as they are sent with false email addresses.”

The controversial season was about to come to its end at Mantorp Park in the final weekend of September. Björk held the championship lead with nine points ahead of Rustad.

Dahlgren took the final pole of the year, securing the interesting record of all pole positions of the season for Volvo.

His team mate Rustad went on to win the race and took one step closer to the title, as Björk finished fourth.

Björk’s championship lead was reduced to five points ahead of the final race of the year. But Björk and Rustad never got to fight for it on track as Björk retired in the second corner.

The Flash Engineering driver made contact with Göransson, resulting in Göransson being pushed on to the grass and lost control of his car, crashing in to Björk.

Both BMW teams had their cars in the gravel trap of the first and second corner of the first lap of the final race of the year. “Flash” got a puncture in the first corner after hitting Rustad.

Rudholm got caught in the crash between Göransson and Björk. While Rudholm was able to rejoin, the three other BMW drivers had to stand beside the track, seeing Volvo claiming both the drivers and team title of 2009!

While the frustration was high in the BMW teams, the Volvo team celebrated. Rustad took his second STCC title, finishing on the same points as Björk, and was over the moon.

“I am very proud to win the biggest championship in Scandinavia as a Norwegian,” said Rustad.