STCC drops reversed grids for 2017 season

The Scandinavian Touring Car Championship will drop reversed grids for the upcoming season, amid a range of other sporting regulation changes.

In recent years, grids for the second race have been determined by reversing the top ten qualifying times from the first part of qualifying, with Race 1’s starting positions set through the combined qualifying result, with a full 25 points, equivalent to a race victory, awarded for pole position, with points awarded all the way down to tenth. This system is to be scrapped in 2017.

Instead, in conjunction with the new three-race format the STCC has adopted for this season, qualifying will be split into three segments. The first 15-minute session will feature all cars and will set the grid for the opening race.

A ten-minute second qualifying session, Q2, will then set the top ten grid positions for Race 2, with the bottom half of the field that will not take part in Q2, remaining the same as Race 1.

Finally, a five-minute Q3 segment will feature the top five cars from Q2 battle it out for pole for the third race of the weekend, with sixth onwards as per the combined qualifying results from Q2 and Q1. Each pole position setter will also be awarded with a single championship point.

The championship’s organisers have also made alterations to success ballast, which will follow the TCR International Series approach. The most successful driver in terms of championship points earned over the course of a weekend will be given 30kg of ballast for the following meeting, while the second-placed receives 20kg and third-placed 10kg.

This changes the previous ballast rules, whereby a maximum weight of 60kg was applied through past results and championship standings throughout the season.

The opening round of the new TCR era for the STCC begins at Ring Knutstorp in Skåne on the weekend of 4-6 May.