Polestar to race in WTCC at Brands Hatch and Okayama
Volvo Cars gives STCC champion team green light to ramp up WTCC involvement
The summer holidays will remain short this year for Volvo Cars Motorsport and its official partner and Swedish Touring Car Championship team Polestar Racing. As preparations run high for the next Falkenberg STCC race on July 10, the mindset is already on Brands Hatch and WTCC on July 18 where Polestar Racing will enter its bio-ethanol powered C30 DRIVe with driver Robert Dahlgren.
"We are very pleased that Volvo Cars has decided to let us race Brands Hatch again and the Okayama race in Japan on October 31. We have performed one World Touring Car Championship race per season the last two years to evaluate our car against the best. Two races will allow for an even better evaluation," says Polestar Racing Managing Director Christian Dahl.
Polestar Racing has worked for Volvo Cars since 1996 and has developed the current C30 race car. The car won both the STCC Team and Driver Championship in 2009 by claiming all poles and half of all race wins. Apart from accommodating Volvo Cars in several business areas with Polestar Performance engine optimization products and with their own concept cars like the 405 Hp C30 Performance Concept Prototype, Polestars' long term ambition is to also represent Volvo in a full WTCC programme.
This ambition could turn into a possibility as WTCC now takes a significant step in aligning with Volvo Cars Motorsport objectives.
"WTCC is now attending its major obstacle for growth with the new engine regulation. At the same time we see several national championships starting to stray from the same FIA S2000 regulations by several own counterproductive decisions and dispensations from a manufacturer perspective," says Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Motorsport Commercial Director at Volvo Cars.
He continues:
"We will remain focused on the improved FIA S2000 regulations used in the WTCC. That is why we have given Polestar a green light to further evaluate competitiveness. We have also challenged them to establish a financial and technical plan for WTCC 2011, including a full FIA homologation of the current C30 car."
