[STCC] 2009 News, Rumours, Entries...

[SEATFreak]

What about Andre Couto? Did nothing in the two races he had (Macau) but he has experience of the Accord.

[stedevil]

Just looking at the performance he showed in WTCC, he would likely be a back marker in STCC. So completely uninteresting.

[Bramzel]

Originally Posted by SEATFreak

What about Andre Couto? Did nothing in the two races he had (Macau) but he has experience of the Accord.

He has experience of wrecking cars in Macau There are tons of drivers more interesting than him for this seat. The 6 drivers mentioned for example, or Ryan Sharp as JetAlliance doesn't do FIAGT in 2009, so he's without a drive.

[Speed-King]

Speaking of JetAlliance: Karl Wendlinger is out of a ride as well....

[Ola]

It's a bit of a stretch to go from FIA-GT to a FWD Honda in STCC I'd say with no recent S2000-experience to fall back on.

Plus I think Wendlinger wasn't too happy about the DTM-cars and preferred GT. Not sure S2000 would be much fun then.

I'd guess Roberto Colciago, David Björk, Pontus Mörth, Jens Edman or James Thompson all are in the picture for the Honda seat.

[JMeissner]

Some rule changes for 2009:

http://www.touringcartimes.com/news.php?id=3074

New qualifying system and new base weights.

[SEATFreak]

Originally Posted by JMeissner

Some rule changes for 2009:

http://www.touringcartimes.com/news.php?id=3074

New qualifying system and new base weights.

Ought to make things interesting. New rules always seem to draw that reaction. But I think in this case it is really welcomed; certainly by me. Especially regarding the base weight. It is really nice to see both RWD and FWD cars treated the same.

One queery. With two races per meeting and not one, assuming that theirs still 9 circuits, would that mean theirs now 18 races (2 per meeting)?

[PorscheFanNo1]

Yes.

Notices that one race is still TBA, and that Sturup is not on the callendar yet, whats the problem? Thought the track was safe after the money problem?

Also article on TcT about the SAAB, would be nice if we could get a confirmation on that one sometime soon, I'm afraid they will run out of time otherwise and wont show up.

[Pettersson]

Interesting rules. But can't really see why FWD got a higher base weight.

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by SEATFreak

With two races per meeting and not one, assuming that theirs still 9 circuits, would that mean theirs now 18 races (2 per meeting)?

Yes, but do note we had 11 race weekends in 2008, not 9.

[stedevil]

Meanwhile, Thompson is confirmed to be one of the 6 on Hondas short list, but unlikely the #1
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72801

[Ola]

I like the fact that the FWD and RWD cars have the same base weight. With rolling starts and two shorter races instead of one long race the differencies between RWD and FWD doesn't seem to motivate RWD being heavier.

Sometimes the previous seasons the weight differencies between BMW and the FWD was ridiculous in certain races.

[stedevil]

I just had a peak at the actual regulation. RWD still have a +30kg penalty weight.

But since a sequential gearbox also gives a +30kg penalty it in essence makes all cars be 1170kg, but the FWD cars get the advantage of a seq over the manual gearbox at that weight point.

[werner]

IIRC the BMW's of both WestCoast and Flash were fitted with a sequential gearbox as well, weren't they? So they would still be 30kg heavier if they would fit those boxes again this year.

About the Thompson story, I checked the calendars of both the BTCC and the STCC, and there is only 1 conflicting weekend. The races of Gellerasen and Knockhill are on the same weekend. So Thompson (or any driver actually) can easily do both series, especially since BTCC races are on sundays, and STCC-races on saturdays. So if you drive at Gellerasen, you can catch a plane to Scotland, and race at Knockhill aswell. You have to start at the back for the first race, due to not being able to qualifie on saturday, but that's it.

[Ola]

Originally Posted by werner

IIRC the BMW's of both WestCoast and Flash were fitted with a sequential gearbox as well, weren't they? So they would still be 30kg heavier if they would fit those boxes again this year.

No, WestCoast has used an H-pattern gearbox in their cars all the time. They never had sequential gearboxes in their BMW E90.

Flash Engineering fitted sequential gearboxes to their cars during 2006, had them 2007 and during 2008 changed back to H-pattern gearboxes again. Richard Göransson had an H-pattern gearbox during the whole 2008 season. In the second half of the season they changed the gearbox on Flash's car from sequential to H-pattern.

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by werner

I checked the calendars of both the BTCC and the STCC, and there is only 1 conflicting weekend.

Quite an interesting fact. That would mean eg Volvo is also able to show themselves in BTCC with the C30 with minimal extra expenses (both drivers and teams remaining the same) and only different tyres and potentially E85 penalties to worry about. Meanwhile, reading further in the STCC 2009 regs, Im surprised E85 still gets a general -6kg penatly weight applied. I think Volvo showed already last year that they dont really need that weight drop to be competitive. But the local homologation car weights have not been determined yet, so maybe the Volvo will get those 6kg back there and only newcomers to E85 will get the advantage?

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Originally Posted by werner

IIRC the BMW's of both WestCoast and Flash were fitted with a sequential gearbox as well, weren't they? So they would still be 30kg heavier if they would fit those boxes again this year.

About the Thompson story, I checked the calendars of both the BTCC and the STCC, and there is only 1 conflicting weekend. The races of Gellerasen and Knockhill are on the same weekend. So Thompson (or any driver actually) can easily do both series, especially since BTCC races are on sundays, and STCC-races on saturdays. So if you drive at Gellerasen, you can catch a plane to Scotland, and race at Knockhill aswell. You have to start at the back for the first race, due to not being able to qualifie on saturday, but that's it.

From the sound of the article it was more a case of combining touring cars with say, FIA GT, not two touring car series.

[werner]

The proposal for him to combine the STCC and the BTCC is completely mine. Just an advice for him. Completely free, no charge whatsoever. Although, a few free tickets would be nice

[cmk]

Originally Posted by stedevil

Quite an interesting fact. That would mean eg Volvo is also able to show themselves in BTCC with the C30 with minimal extra expenses (both drivers and teams remaining the same) and only different tyres and potentially E85 penalties to worry about. Meanwhile, reading further in the STCC 2009 regs, Im surprised E85 still gets a general -6kg penatly weight applied. I think Volvo showed already last year that they dont really need that weight drop to be competitive. But the local homologation car weights have not been determined yet, so maybe the Volvo will get those 6kg back there and only newcomers to E85 will get the advantage?

Unless you consider 2-3 extra chassis, the extra spares for that many cars, a UK-based support infrastructure, and travel between Sweden and the UK 'minimal', I don't see how this is possibly true.

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by cmk

Unless you consider 2-3 extra chassis...

Why would you need extra chassies, spares and UK support infrastructure?!? All you need to do is load your existing trucks on a boat heading for Britain. What would be added is the boat ticket costs and crew transportation. Compared to running 2 full completely separate teams, 1 in STCC and 1 in BTCC, the cost savings would be considerable.

[werner]

There might be a small problem. Btc-teams can only use 4 engines per year. If you race 2 championships you have a larger chance that you need to many engines, and therefore risk to get points deducted from your tally. I think the penalty is 10 points per extra engine.
Another point is that it is possible to get a driver on a plane to race the next day in the other serie. It becomes harder to ship a complete team to Britain in a night and race in Knockhill without any preparations. You'll have to miss 1 race.

[stedevil]

Originally Posted by werner

It becomes harder to ship a complete team to Britain in a night and race in Knockhill without any preparations. You'll have to miss 1 race.

Well, probably yes. The engine problem though would not be too big an issue. The STCC regs only requires an engine to be used at least 2 entire weekends before any modifications are allowed. So easiest solution I assume would just to switch between 2 engines. That also gives you a fully working spare engine in worst case scenarios.

[stedevil]

Just spotted on STCC.se that the Camaro Cup support race already has 27 confirmed entries, with several more expected.

I guess STCC pushing so hard for actual environmental friendlessness (as opposed to FIAs placebo increase ethanol in the petrol from 5 to 10%) is really paying off in these hard economic times. While many/most racing series, even WRC and F1, let alone smaller local TCC, are looking considerably wobbly, STCC and it's entire support package looks to be continuing to get stronger.

[werner]

Won't there be any probems with tracks to small to host a grid of 30 large cars?

[Ola]

Originally Posted by werner

Won't there be any probems with tracks to small to host a grid of 30 large cars?

Not really. There were up to 30 cars in Carrera Cup last year without any problems.

Qualification was a problem with a lot of traffic but they solved that with cars qualifying in different groups.

In the races at some tracks up to 30 cars means some at the back will start in or after the last corner, like at Mantorp. But that was not a problem.