Super Touring still living! STCC race at Falkenberg

[JMeissner]

Falkenberg Qualifying
STCC 07/07/01

Janne "Flash" Nilsson conquered poleposition today (Saturday) at a sunny and hot Falkenberg track. He took poleposition 0.1 seconds ahead of his team mate Jens Edman. Current championship leader Carl Rosenblad took third place in his Nissan Primera. Audi-driver Tommy Kristoffersson is lurking behind the top trio in fourth place only 0.05 seconds behind Rosenblad on this very quick circuit. Pontus Mörth managed to get his Opel Vectra ahead of his two Vauxhall rivals. Mattias Andersson is right behind Mörth in sixth place. Mörth is driving an ex-STW Opel Vectra while the Andersson and Lovén drives two 2000 spec´ ex-BTCC Vauxhall Vectras.The grid for the second race is detirmined by fastest lap during the first race.

Falkenberg Qualifying

1 Jan Nilsson Volvo S40 41.097
2 Jens Edman Volvo S40 41.180
3 Carl Rosenblad Nissan Primera 41.312
4 Tommy Kristoffersson Audi A4 Quattro 41.369
5 Pontus Mörth Opel Vectra 41.382
6 Mattias Andersson Vauxhall Vectra 41.503
7 Tomas Nyström Nissan Primera 41.585
8 Niklas Lovén Vauxhall Vectra 41.618
9 Jan Lindblom Volvo S40 41.734
10 Niklas Karlsson Alfa Romeo 156 41.809
11 Tobias Johansson Audi A4 Quattro 41.838
12 Hubert Bergh Honda Accord 41.882
13 Tomas Engström Chrysler Stratus 41.943
14 Roberto Colciago Audi A4 Quattro 42.017
15 Peter Hallén BMW 320i 42.402
16 Andreas Boström Volvo S40 42.468
17 Lennart Pehrson Audi A4 Quattro 42.576
18 Anders Hammer Audi A4 Quattro 42.721
19 Magnus Krokström Audi A4 Quattro 42.731
20 Marcus Gustafsson Alfa Romeo 156 42.909
21 Djon Clausen Alfa Romeo 155 -:-:-


Johan Meissner
johan@touringcartimes.com

[racer69]

apart from Europe Sweden and Australia, any other countries running Super Touring, South America did last year, what about this year.

That looks like a quality field in Sweden, pity we can't get those kinds of fields in Australia

[kmchow]

That is just unbelievable!! TWENTY ST cars on the grid from a small country like Sweden??? Is ST the top/most popular racing series in Sweden right now? Judging from the number of cars, it has got to be!!
It can't be cheap running all those cars!!

And all the cars are so relatively new!!! I won't be suprised if the STCC runs for another year or two using ST cars???

[JMeissner]

The STCC is the most popular motorsport in Sweden by far, we get around 20.000+ people per round. And it is increasing each year. Not to be naiv, but I think it is impressive to get this field of Super Touring cars in a small country like Sweden. I mean, we have a bigger championship than the ETCC. We have Volvo, Nissan, Audi, Opel and Honda with a couple of semi officials (Chrysler, Alfa Romeo). I dont really know why, but I guess Motorsport is a very popular sport in Sweden. Sweden is acctually the country with the most circuits per inhabitans in the world...

There is still no official word what rules STCC will go by next year. But it looks like maybe we will get Super Touring one last year.

Here are the results and report of todays two races:

Falkenberg Race
STCC 08/07/01

Falkenberg Race One

Janne "Flash" Nilsson took his first win this year today (Sunday) at the Falkenberg track in Sweden. He took the win 1.6 seconds ahead of his team mate Jens Edman and three second ahead of Carl Rosenblad in third. "Flash" took the start in his Volvo S40 just ahead of his team mate Jens Edman. Carl Rosenblad, driving a Nissan Primera, was right behind Edman in third. After just a few corners in to the race Thomas Nyström, Nissan, made a brave attack on Pontus Mörth. This resulted in both of them going off the track in to the gravel. The safety car was brought out to clear the cars. Just as the safetycar went back in to the pits a thunderstorm came in over the track. The rain started to pour down which once again brought out the safety car. The safety car was out during several laps before it was decided to bring out the "wet race" sign. The teams got 10 minutes to change tyres and a restart would take place with the cars standing in the order they were in during the safety car laps.

Nilsson, once again, took the start ahead of Edman and Rosenblad. Jan Lindblom, driving a privately owned Volvo S40, pushed a bit too hard at the wet track and lost control of his car spinning out to the gravel trap. The two Audi drivers Colciago and Kristoffersson were making the most of their four-wheel driven cars as they started quickly to make places. Kristoffersson decided to let Colciago go past as the Italian was storming though the field from his 14:th place on the grid. Colciago finally finished in an impressive fourth place. Carl Rosenblad sat the quickest lap during the race which gave him poleposition for the second race. Kristoffersson took second place on the grid with Jan Nilsson in third.

Falkenberg Race One

1 Jan Nilsson Volvo S40 18 laps
2 Jens Edman Volvo S40 +1.624
3 Carl Rosenblad Nissan Primera +3.360
4 Roberto Colciago Audi A4 Quattro +3.724
5 Tommy Kristoffersson Audi A4 Quattro +3.999
6 Niklas Lovén Vauxhall Vectra +4.691
7 Mattias Andersson Vauxhall Vectra +9.526
8 Niklas Karlsson Alfa Romeo 156 +13.674
9 Tobias Johansson Audi A4 Quattro +14.008
10 Hubert Bergh Honda Accord +21.013
11 Magnus Krokström Audi A4 Quattro +21.917
12 Peter Hallén BMW 320i +22.612
13 Marcus Gustavsson Alfa Romeo 156 +23.200
14 Andreas Boström Volvo S40 +23.496
15 Thomas Engström Chrysler Stratus +28.041
16 Djon Clausen Alfa Romeo 155 +1 lap
17 Lennart Pehrson Audi A4 Quattro +2 laps

Falkenberg Race Two

Tommy Kristoffersson took his first ever STCC win today (Sunday) at the quick Falkenberg track. He won the race ahead of Rosenblad in second place and previous race winner Janne "Flash" Nilsson in third. The race was heavily delayed due to thunderstorms. Rosenblad held poleposition ahead of Kristoffersson and Nilsson. Carl Rosenblad took the lead with Kristoffersson right behind munching on the rear spoiler. The track was damp, something that ought to help the four-wheel driven Audis. Though the Italian Roberto Colciago was certainly not helped by it. On the first lap Roberto completely lost control of his car and went off the track in to the gravel.

The safety car was brought out to clear the track from dirt as Colciago managed to get out of the gravel trap and drove very slowly in to the pits to retire. As the safety car went back in again Kristoffersson put even more pressure on the leading Rosenblad. After a few laps after the safety car went back in again Kristoffersson threw his car down on the inside of Rosenblad. The Nissan driver had no option than letting Kristoffersson past. Meanwhile Nilsson got pushed hard from Mattias Andersson, Vauxhall, who was right behind in fourth place. Though Nilsson managed to stay ahead of Andersson who had to settle with fourth place over the finish line.

Falkenberg Race Two

1 Tommy Kristoffersson Audi A4 Quattro 32 laps
2 Carl Rosenblad Nissan Primera +9.501
3 Jan Nilsson Volvo S40 +14.716
4 Mattias Andersson Vauxhall Vectra +17.361
5 Jens Edman Volvo S40 +19.035
6 Niklas Lovén Vauxhall Vectra +19.273
7 Thomas Engström Chrysler Stratus +20.504
8 Hubert Bergh Honda Accord +20.550
9 Tobias Johansson Audi A4 Quattro +21.112
10 Marcus Gustavsson Alfa Romeo 156 +21.939
11 Peter Hallén BMW 320i +27.700
12 Lennart Pehrson Audi A4 Quattro +30.236
13 Thomas Nyström Nissan Primera +31.842
14 Anders Hammer Audi A4 Quattro +1 lap

[hunttheshunt]

I hope ST gets to stay in Sweden; it'll be nice to know it still exists. And Johan, are there actually officially backed works teams in Sweden? I didn't think the manufacturers are interested anymore (except Honda and Alfa in the ETCC)

[JMeissner]

Endeed hunttheshunt, as I said; Volvo, Nissan, Audi, Opel and Honda are official worksteams. Take Volvo for example, Ultratech has taken over the development of the cars after TWR. They had an updated 5-cylinder engine and some work of the chassis and suspension.

[J.P.Cooper]

Has Rickard raced in the STCC yet this season??

[JMeissner]

No, he has only done a few official tests. But Volvo says that they will bring him in shortly.

[kmchow]

I guess Volvo can take the credit for bringing ST and Rickard Rydell to the BTCC. Volvo has hit the motherload!! It was the best decision the company has ever made!! Too bad Saab never showed up? Wasn't there some team that had partially built a Saab 900 to ST specs, but abandoned the idea due to lack of financial support??? They instead now race an Opel Vectra??? And use the 900 in rallies??

[Hobson]

Anyone who has played on Toca World Touring cars on the Playstation will notice it has a Saab 9-5, so they must have raced one sometime....

[JMeissner]

A Saab 9-5 Super Touring has never existed.

Though, a Saab 9-3 (or 900) was build, I think it was back in 96-97 somtime. But, the team never had the financial support to develop the engine. They said for a while that they would bring in a Opel Vectra engine in to it, but again, the financials were to small. Saab has never been offcially interested in it. So that Saab 9-3 is currently running in long distance racing, like the 24-h Nürburgring.

There has acctually appeared some strange Super Touring cars in Sweden over the years. In 96 we had a privately owned and build Volvo 960 (S90) Super Touring. It actually did pretty well, not in the class of the 850's but anyway. But I guess you all know what happend to it, after half of the season the team were withdrawn due to financial difficulties..

[kmchow]

JMeisnner wrote:

>There has acctually appeared some strange Super Touring cars in >Sweden over the years. In 96 we had a privately owned and build
>Volvo 960 (S90) Super Touring.
>
Yeah, I looked up my copy of Touring Car World 86/97. It listed a 900 series was racing. Was the engine a 2.0L 4 cylinder or 6 cylinder? I wonder what happened to it!! It was sponsored by Bridgestone Sweden with Ulf Palm at the wheel. Do you have any pics of the car?

I also notice a lot of 190Es raced in the series? Were they all converted DTM 190Es? I thought they were still 2.5L so they ran with extra weight penalties??

The only other interesting car that I know of was that there was a Golf hatchback built to full ST specs? It was listed for sale in Autosport several years back.

[JMeissner]

I dont remember which engine it had, but I know that I have an article about the car somewhere with lots of info and pictures. I can look for it.

Yes, the Mercedes were ex-DTM cars and they had 2.5 litre engines with weightpenality.

Never heard of the Golf Hatchback though

[kmchow]

hey JMeisnner, have you heard anything about the costs/budgets for teams racing in the STCC, DTM, ETCC or anywhere else? A similar topic is being debated also at:

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=11582

The above debate is between costs of racing in the Australian V8 Supercar series versus the ASTC!

It costs roughly 700K US to race competitively in the Auss V8 Supercar series. That sound a bit similar to STCC?

[JMeissner]

Well, I found an article that shows the costs for the Nissan team in the STCC last year. Note that the cost is for two cars.

1 US dollar = 10 Swedish Kronor

All the figures are in US Dollar

Wages

Driver wages 80.000
Other wages 151.000

Running costs

Local, administration, phone, ensuranses 35.000
Respraying of truck, trailer, racecar, motorhome 10.000
Decals, striping, other decorations 10.000
Team clothing 15.000
Hotels, travels 50.000
Renting circuits for testing 50.000
Racing tyres 96.000
Engines, including service personell 180.000
Development, running costs, spair parts 170.000
Pitlane decoration 7.500
Fuel 30.000
Entrance charge 8.000
Computers 8.000
Tent, pitgear 10.000
Costs for trucks, motorhome including ensuranses 9.000

Race cars 190.000
Transport vehicles 22.000
Other 20.000

Total cost for two STCC Nissan Primeras 2000
=
1.106.500 US Dollar

[knowlesy59]

so what is that in pounds then.it sounds a lot to me.and long live super touring in your native land.

[kmchow]

knowlesy59 wrote:

>so what is that in pounds then.it sounds a lot to me.and long live >super touring in your native land.
>
The two car Nissan STCC team costed about 650K pounds to race. The one car Aussie V8 Supercar team costs about 450K pounds to race. That's probably cheap compared to the BTCC?

650K pounds is about the cost that Matt Neal probably spent??

[hunttheshunt]

£450K for one Aussie V8?! That's as bad as the ST's of the BTCC. I think this year it's costing Vauxhall about £200K (?) to run their four car effort this year.

[kmchow]

hunttheshunt wrote:

>£450K for one Aussie V8?! That's as bad as the ST's of the BTCC. I >think this year it's costing Vauxhall about £200K (?) to run their >four car effort this year.
>
I think there are some fixed starting costs included with the 450K pounds. Fixed starting costs like transporter, wheels,etc...
The costs/budget article is really cool at the V8supercar homepage.

[racer69]

Nothing could beat the Hyundai Lantra Super Tourers built and developed (if you could call it that) in Australia. They had one built at the end of 1994 and had pulled out before the end of 1995. One of them still races in the ASTC, and suprise surprise, is at the back of the field.

[kmchow]

racer69 wrote:

>Nothing could beat the Hyundai Lantra Super Tourers built and >developed (if you could call it that) in Australia.
>
What do you mean? They cost a lot to build, yet they killed the motorsport programme?

>They had one built at the end of 1994 and had pulled out before the >end of 1995. One of them still races in the ASTC, and suprise >surprise, is at the back of the field.
>
You got to cut them some slack. The development costs of the entire Lantra programme probably could barely cover the cost of the aero package of the top Works ST teams.