WestCoast Racing and MA:GP appeal PWR Racing reinstatement ruling

The 2018 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship drivers’ title is set to be decided in the courtroom, after WestCoast Racing and the MA:GP Honda team have launched appeal against the SBF disciplinary board ruling announced on September 18th.

PWR Racing lost their two victories at Karlskoga last month after the WestCoast Racing team first protested the three finishing cars of Race 1 winner Daniel Haglöf, Philip Morin and Robert Dahlgren, while Race 2 winner Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky lost her victory following a protest by Mattias Andersson of the MA:GP team.

The protest was regarding the legality of the team’s exhaust system, which wasn’t running to the same interpretation of the TCR homologation paperwork as the Volkswagen teams.

The SBF-appointed race director upheld the team’s protests and excluded the cars, and cited they definitely were receiving a performance benefit as a result.

PWR Racing stated they believed they were running correctly and as advised by Cupra Racing, the cars’ builders.

The TCR Technical Working Group moved to clarify the irregularity, with the exhaust system now confirmed as legal following a new technical bulletin from September 12th, which was released just ahead of the appeal hearing.

The SBF disciplinary board then upheld the team’s protest, reinstating their results, citing that they “have not found anything wrong with homologation to use this composition of exhaust system that is now ignored and referring to section 6.6 and technical form No. 35,” which has caused much agitation from PWR Racing’s competitors.

WestCoast Racing and MA:GP have now officially appealed the ruling, which now goes to the SBF legal committee for review. This means that should one of the PWR Racing Cupra drivers win the title this weekend, it’ll be provisional pending the result of the new appeal, with only Johan Kristoffersson and Andreas Wernersson able to be officially confirmed as the champion this weekend, unless Dahlgren finishes 21 points or more clear of Kristoffersson.