Rydell confirmed as champion after protest thrown out

Rickard Rydell has been confirmed as the champion of the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship after a protest from Team Biogas.se was rejected by the stewards at Mantorp Park.

The 44-year-old Swede had provisionally been confirmed as the champion after dominating race one, winning by 3.1 seconds ahead of Team Biogas.se’s Fredrik Ekblom to move into the lead of the championship by 5 points before the final round.

Then with the reversed grid, Rydell started eighth for race two, sharing row four with his title rival, who then managed to make swift progress through the field in the early stages, with Rydell eventually coming through the field to join him, passing the third highest placed Volkswagen of Patrik Olsson as well as his Chevrolet team-mate Michel Nykjaer to move into fifth behind Ekblom.

Team Biogas.se then brought Thed Björk into play, the 30-year-old making his only appearance of the season in a fourth VW Scirocco. Björk dropped from the lead to fourth in between Ekblom and Rydell. As the safety car was brought out to recover a lose tyre stack which had ventured onto the circuit, Rydell, Olsson and Colin Turkington overtook an off-the-throttle Björk , which saw Rydell now back one place behind Ekblom which he held to the chequered flag and was enough to give him a two point lead and his first STCC title.

Team Biogas.se had launched a protest after the race in respect of Björk being passed under the yellow flags, whilst Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden had also lodged a counter protest on Fredrik Ekblom’s pass on their driver Michel Nykjaer earlier in the race.

The officials of the Swedish Automobile Sports Federation have rejected both protests which makes the result of today’s races official, with Rydell sealing the drivers’ championship and Team Biogas.se securing the teams’ championship, moving ahead of Volvo Polestar Racing.

Final Championship Standings