Photo: Mediaempire.se

Scandinavian street race in Gothenburg – preview

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The Swedish and Danish Touring Car Championship heads to the streets of Gothenburg this weekend for the only street race in Scandinavia. 22 cars are going to be on the grid for the combined Scandinavian Touring Car Cup.

Championship leader Robert Dahlgren has all eyes on him as he heads to the race in Gothenburg, the home town and race of both the team Polestar Racing and Volvo.

The Swede heads both the STCC and the Scandinavian Cup ahead of this race. Dahlgren heads STCC with 11 points ahead of rival BMW driver Richard Göransson and the Scandinavian Cup with just one point ahead of Alternative Engineering driver Robert Schlünssen.

One team that should be in the top fight is the Volkswagen Team Biogas.se. Triple STCC champion Fredrik Ekblom took the team’s first victory at Karlskoga two weeks ago and is not going to get extra weight for this race as the weight is calculated on the first round at Jyllandsringen where they were off pace.

The fight behind the top championship drivers is intense. Reigning champion has had a dreadful start of the season but won the first race in Gothenburg last year and is looking to make up a lot of ground.

The same goes for the two Flash Engineering drivers Thed Björk and previous race winner Jan “Flash” Nilsson. They are in eight and ninth place respectively in the championship but proved in the last race that they are heading for the top fight.

The Danish field was reduced to just five cars as Hartmann Racing decided to withdraw from the race. But quite a few of the remaining five are going to be in for the top fight, such as Jan Magnussen in the “new” Chevrolet Lacetti as well as Jason Watt and Robert Schlünssen.

Follow all the action from the weekend at TouringCarTimes.com!

Weight list for Gothenburg

1215 kilo – BMW 320si E90 seq-box
1210 kilo – BMW 320si E90 h-box
1199 kilo – Volvo C30
1180 kilo – Chevrolet Lacetti
1170 kilo – Volkswagen Scirocco
1170 kilo – Volvo S60
1145 kilo – Chevrolet Cruze
1140 kilo – Opel Astra
1140 kilo – SEAT Léon
1135 kilo – Honda Accord
1130 kilo – Alfa Romeo 156 (Andersson, Hoffsten)
1120 kilo – BMW 320i E46
1120 kilo – Alfa Romeo 156 (Appelqvist)
1105 kilo – Peugeot 407

*=Did not take part in the last race which automatically gives +40 kilo

Previous winners in Gothenburg

2009 – Tommy Rustad, Tomas Engström
2008 – Thed Björk