Mixed reception of NGTC in Scandinavia

The Scandinavian Touring Car Championship organizers recently confirmed that the British NGTC regulations will be introduced in 2012. The reception among the teams and drivers in Scandinavia are mixed.
“I can’t say that I understand the choice of NGTC, especially as none of the big teams seem to support it,” said reigning champion Richard Göransson to TouringCarTimes.

Chevrolet driver Rickard Rydell on the other hand thinks the choice of NGTC is great for the championship.

“It is great that STCC has taken this decision. This is what touring car racing is about and I think the importers are going to be behind this. The BTCC regulations suits us well and it is right on the level where the importers are,” said Rydell to the official championship site.

One of the main positive points of the NGTC regulations, according to Rydell, is that the cars are closer to the cars of when the touring car racing was most popular.

“With these regulations we are getting close to what we had during the old Super Touring regulations towards the end of the nineties, with more horsepower and slightly less grip. It is important that the cars are not too fast so you can race close, that is what produces close racing,” said Rydell.

Göransson on the other hand thinks the NGTC regulations are too close to the S2000 regulations and that the STCC needs faster and more powerful cars.

“If we are to introduce new regulations, I would like to see more spectacular and faster cars. During the nineties, when touring car racing was at its peak with Super Touring, it was not common with a road car with 300 bhp. Today 300 bhp is common among road cars and a car with 500 bhp is something special in road cars. We need to have the very top end of cars when racing in the top level of racing, not cars that are slower than the cars of the road,” said Göransson.

One of the main points with the NGTC regulations, created by the organizers of the British Touring Car Championship, is for the smaller teams to afford building and buying the new cars. The privateer teams of the STCC, like IPS Motorsport and MA:GP, are positive of the NGTC introduction in Scandinavia.

“This is going to be the best solution for the future of STCC. There are going to be cars available from the UK which is good for us that neseccarily do not want to build cars from scratch,” said Mattias Andersson of MA:GP.

But the STCC Volkswagen team Biogas.se team boss Tommy Kristoffersson says that it is not going to be cheaper to have the NGTC cars compared to the current S2000 cars.

“NGTC is not going to be cheaper. Either you are in it to win or to just take part. If you just want to take part, perhaps it is going to be a bit cheaper. But if you go all the way, it is going to be just as expensive as today,” said Kristoffersson to Teknikens Värld.

STCC AB and the BTCC organizers have stated that an NGTC car is going to cost around 140.000 euro, not including engine [11.300 € to buy an NGTC engine], a cost doubted by some of the teams.

“I think it is going to be hard to build a car for that sum. I know what the cost was when we build our Mercedes cars and that was a lot more,” said Tobias Johansson, team boss of Mattias Ekström Junior Team to dalademokraten.se.

Tomas Engström, previously running the STCC Honda team, feels that the introduction of NGTC could enable him and Honda Sweden to run the new Accord.

“I think it is important to select regulations that are existing in other countries and I hope that we can get Honda onboard on this [NGTC] solution,” said Engström.

Multiple Danish champion Casper Elgaard hopes that the fact that BTCC introduces NGTC for 2011 is going to make it easier for the Scandinavian teams in 2012.

“I don’t know the exact details of the NGTC regulations, but as I have understood it is possible to use the cars in several championships. I do not think that there are any teams in Scandinavia that want to compete in the UK, or the other way around, but it is going to be possible to buy a ready car in the UK and use it back home, as well as selling it in the UK again,” said Elgaard.

The NGTC regulations in the UK has currently attracted a total of five complete NGTC specification cars for 2011. Two Toyota Avensis for privateer teams Speedworks Motorsport and Dynojet Racing, and two Audi A4 for privateer team Rob Austin Racing, as well as the recently announced plans for privateer team Welch Motorsport to enter a Proton Gen-2.