Volkswagen prepared to “go all the way” in title fight

The legal fight on the 2011 STCC title is still ongoing with Volkswagen declaring that they are prepared to go all the way in their appeal on Rickard Rydell’s title.
“We are prepared to go all the way to the National Athletic Association [Riksidrottsförbundet],” said Tommy Kristoffersson, Team Principal of Volkswagen Team Biogas.se to na.se.

Volkswagen filed a protest on champion Rickard Rydell right after the final race of the season at Mantorp, regarding that Rydell passed Volkswagen driver Thed Björk under yellow flags.

The stewards at the STCC final turned down the protest, resulting in Volkswagen filing an appeal to the Swedish Motorsport Federation [SBF]. A decision has not yet been taken and Volkswagen are critical of the lengthy decision process.
“The regulations say that a case like this should be handled expeditiously. It was rather a long time ago since the cars finished the race and they [SBF] should not be waiting for more evidence. I know that the discipline committee had a meeting last Thursday and both me and our lawyer expected an answer by now, but we haven’t got anything yet,” said Kristoffersson.

Speculations have been made that the case could be thrown out as the Volkswagen team did not fill in a standard form regarding the appeal after the race. The form must be filled in within an hour and be handed over to the race director, otherwise the case will automatically be dropped.
“We did not fill in the form as we announced to the steward Kenneth Bergquist right after [the declined protest] that we were going to appeal. We asked Berquist on how to do and he said “we never use that form”,” said Kristoffersson.

Ekblom, who was beaten with two points by Rydell in the end, is equally critical of the way SBF handles the situation.
“It feels like they [SBF] have found a loophole. I think that they are trying to put their heads in the sand and hope that it blows over,” said Ekblom.

SBF dismisses the criticism from Volkswagen and Ekblom.
“I can understand Fredrik Ekblom’s emotions, but we are thorough in following the regulations. The Volkswagen team has not signed the documents that we want them to sign and we want to hear the steward’s view on the matter. We want to find out if they [VW] have been misled. So the investigation continues,” said Kenny Lagerlöf of the Discipline Committee.

Lagerlöf also dismisses the statement from Volkswagen to go to the National Athletic Association with the matter.
“NAA does usually not take on race situations. They are mainly handling questions of principle,” said Lagerlöf.

The Volkswagen team are still firm in their belief that there is no doubt that Rydell should be penalized.
“There is evidence for it. Everyone has seen that the yellow light is flashing when Rydell passes. It is strange morally if the federation tries to find a loophole in order to avoid changing the result list,” said Kristoffersson.

The evidence Volkswagen speaks of is shown in the video below, posted on YouTube by the Volkswagen team Team Biogas.se.

If Volkswagen wins the appeal and all drivers that passed Björk under yellow flags, including Rydell, would be excluded, it would also mean that Volkswagen loses the team title to Volvo.