Full STCC campaign still the aim for Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky in 2018

Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky is targeting a full season in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship for 2018 after revealing she is in talks to remain at PWR Racing.

The 25-year-old from Karlstad drove the Junior Team’s Audi RS 3 LMS in a partial campaign last year, having opted to prioritise a full year of ADAC GT Masters.

Now Åhlin-Kottulinsky, who claimed two points finishes in a fraught maiden season in the STCC, is eyeing a permanent move to touring cars and says discussions are well underway with PWR co-owners Daniel Haglöf and Poker Wallenberg.

“I’ve been working hard with PWR (during the off-season) and there have been some talks about this year already,” Åhlin-Kottulinsky told TouringCarTimes. “We’re trying to find a way to do STCC full-time but as always, the budget needs to be there too to make it happen.

“I have decided I need to focus on one series this year and I really want it to be in the STCC. It’s a great championship and I believe I can take the experiences from my first year and improve even more.”

On working with PWR Racing, who claimed their first STCC drivers’ title when Robert Dahlgren lifted the trophy last season, Åhlin-Kottulinsky added: “I really enjoy the atmosphere within the team, it’s like a family. I got on very well with Daniel and Poker and it’s great that they believe in me and have accepted me in the team.

“I haven’t really been in a team with this kind of atmosphere since I raced for JC Racetechnik in rallycross. OK, it was a bit different because I have known [team owner] Joel [Christoffersson] since I was about 12, but there are a lot of similarities between his team and PWR.

“I think you definitely need to have a strong team spirit and work together and help each other.

“Robert (Dahlgren) was fantastic last year, he supported me so much throughout the year. He helped me understand the car and the Swedish tracks, because I hadn’t driven many of them surprisingly.”

A race winner in the DTM-supporting Volkswagen Scirocco Cup in 2014, Åhlin-Kottulinsky’s introduction to the pinnacle of Swedish motorsport was far from ideal.

Struggles with the intrinsic starting mechanisms of the new TCR cars and contact with Wallenberg at the opening round at Knutstorp meant she had to wait until the third round at Solvalla to score her first points.

Subsequent rounds at Karlskoga and Anderstorp showed yet more promise, but on-track incidents occurred too often, allowing frustration to creep in.

“My first year of STCC was up-and-down to be honest. I had some good results and pace but I had too many incidents,” Åhlin-Kottulinsky explains.

“It all became a bit too much, I felt I couldn’t cope with all the stress, especially as I knew I had the speed.

“Also, almost every track was new last year so I had to learn them quickly, while the others had driven them many times. This year I just need to find myself again, get in tune with the car and focus on getting a full-season in the STCC.

Haglöf and Wallenberg have yet to complete their full line-up for the 2018 STCC season, with only defending champion Dahlgren confirmed so far.