The 2009 Swedish Touring Car Championship season was the 14th Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) season. It was decided over nine race weekends (comprising eighteen races) at six different circuits.
Tommy Rustad won the drivers' championship for the second time. The ethanol powered Volvo C30 of Polestar Racing proved to be the fastest car over one lap, as evidenced by them setting all fastest qualifying times during the season (although grid penalties ruined the perfect score), but they were plagued by bad reliability. Instead, Thed Björk, driving for Flash Engineering, lead the championship most of the season, only to be overtaken in the last race.
The team championship also went down to the wire, with Polestar Racing besting WestCoast Racing by one point in the last race.
The entry of the Biogas.se team with their Volkswagen Scirocco meant the debut of a biogas powered car in STCC. Unfortunately, they had trouble matching the pace of the other factory teams and ended up last in the team championship.
Changes for 2009 There were several rule changes for the 2009 season.
Race format changes: Two races of approximately 20 minutes were held each race weekend. There were no mandatory pitstops in either race. The starting grid of the first race was determined by qualifying. The starting grid of the second race was determined by the results from the first race with the top eight positions reversed. The qualifying was divided into two sessions, where the eight fastest from the first (20 minutes) session moved on to the second (10 minutes) session. Both races used rolling starts.
Other changes: Yokohama replaced Michelin as tyre supplier. Each race weekend, the team that scored most points received a price sum of 100.000 SEK. For this purpose, some of the one-car teams combined two and two. The winner of the team championship was awarded an additional 100.000 SEK. The manufacturers' championship was dropped.
Drivers These were the STCC entries for the 2009 season. Drivers with numbers 88 and higher also competed in Semcon Cup, open for privateers only. All teams were Swedish-registered.
TeamCarDriversClassRounds WestCoast Racing BMW 320si E90 1 Richard GöranssonDAll 4 Robin RudholmDAll Biogas.se Volkswagen Scirocco 2 Fredrik EkblomDAll 11 Patrik OlssonDAll Flash Engineering BMW 320si E90 3 Thed BjörkDAll 6 Jan "Flash" NilssonDAll 92 Tobias TegelbyS17–18 Polestar Racing Volvo C30 5 Robert DahlgrenDAll 10 Tommy RustadDAll Chevrolet Motorsport SwedenNordic Fine Art Chevrolet Lacetti 7 Thomas SchieD1–6 12 Pontus MörthD7–18SEAT León 9 Roger ErikssonDAll Engström MotorsportHonda Accord 8 Tomas EngströmDAll MA:GPIPS MotorsportAlfa Romeo 156 20 Mattias AnderssonDAllPeugeot 308 21 Johan SturesonDAll Team CaWalli BMW 320i E46 88 Viktor HallrupSAll 93 Dick SahlénSAll Team MECAAlfa Romeo 156 GTA 89 Claes HoffstenSAllG-Rex SwedenMercedes-Benz C200 91 Tony JohanssonS1–6,9–12Micke Ohlsson MotorsportPeugeot 407/BMW 320i E46 94 Mikael OhlssonS1–10,15–16Kristoffersson MotorsportAudi A4 95 Andreas SimonsenS5–6,9–10 98 Johan KristofferssonSAllHuggare RacingOpel Astra 96 Viktor HuggareSAllMälarpower MotorsportVolvo S60 99 Ronnie BrandtS5–8,11–14,17–18 Icon Class D Drivers' Championship S Semcon Cup
* Mikko Tiainen, Petter Granlund and Joakim Ahlberg were on the official entry list, but failed to participate in any races during the season.
Race calendar The race calendar for this season was as follows:
Round Circuit/Location Date 1 & 2 Mantorp Park May 2 3 & 4 Karlskoga Motorstadion May 23 5 & 6 Göteborg City Race June 6 7 & 8 Ring Knutstorp June 27 9 & 10 Falkenbergs Motorbana July 11 11 & 12 Karlskoga Motorstadion August 15 13 & 14 Vålerbanen August 29 15 & 16 Ring Knutstorp September 12 17 & 18 Mantorp Park September 26
Results and standings
The points system used for both the main championship and Semcon Cup was the standard FIA system of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1, awarded to the top eight finishers of each race. In case of ties in points, the championship positions were determined by the classification in the latest race.
Races
Round Circuit/Location Pole position Fastest lap Winning driver Winning team Highest Scoring Team Winning privateer 1 Mantorp Park Robert Dahlgren Robert Dahlgren Robert Dahlgren Polestar RacingFlash Engineering Johan Kristoffersson 2 Thomas Schie Thed Björk Richard Göransson WestCoast Racing Johan Kristoffersson 3 Karlskoga Motorstadion Robin Rudholm* Robin Rudholm Robin Rudholm WestCoast RacingWestCoast Racing Johan Kristoffersson 4 Roger Eriksson Robin Rudholm Robin Rudholm WestCoast Racing Viktor Hallrup 5 Göteborg City Race Tommy Rustad* Robert Dahlgren Tommy Rustad Polestar RacingMA:GP/IPS Andreas Simonsen 6 Fredrik Ekblom Robert Dahlgren Tomas Engström Engström Motorsport Viktor Hallrup 7 Ring Knutstorp Robert Dahlgren Robin Rudholm Robert Dahlgren Polestar RacingWestCoast Racing Dick Sahlén 8 Roger Eriksson Robin Rudholm Jan Nilsson Flash Engineering Dick Sahlén 9 Falkenbergs Motorbana Tommy Rustad Tommy Rustad Tommy Rustad Polestar RacingWestCoast Racing Johan Kristoffersson 10 Tomas Engström Thed Björk Richard Göransson WestCoast Racing Andreas Simonsen 11 Karlskoga Motorstadion Robert Dahlgren Jan Nilsson Jan Nilsson Flash EngineeringWestCoast Racing Tony Johansson 12 Patrik Olsson Robert Dahlgren Robert Dahlgren Polestar Racing Dick Sahlén 13 Vålerbanen Robert Dahlgren Tommy Rustad Tommy Rustad Polestar RacingPolestar Racing Viktor Hallrup 14 Pontus Mörth Thed Björk Tommy Rustad Polestar Racing Dick Sahlén 15 Ring Knutstorp Robert Dahlgren Robert Dahlgren Richard Göransson WestCoast RacingMA:GP/IPS Viktor Hallrup 16 Patrik Olsson Thed Björk Johan Stureson IPS Motorsport Mikael Ohlsson 17 Mantorp Park Robin Rudholm♯ Robert Dahlgren Tommy Rustad Polestar RacingPolestar Racing Johan Kristoffersson 18 Tomas Engström Robert Dahlgren Robert Dahlgren Polestar Racing Johan Kristoffersson
* Robert Dahlgren set the fastest qualifying time, but was moved down 10 places on the grid, due to engine changes.
♯ Robert Dahlgren set the fastest qualifying time, but was moved down 10 places on the grid, due to having received two yellow cards for unfair driving.
Drivers championship
The drivers' championship was won by Tommy Rustad. In the end he scored the same number of points as Thed Björk, but won thanks to finishing higher in the last race.
Pos. Driver MAN KAR GÖT KNU FAL KAR VÅL KNU MAN Pts 1 Tommy Rustad2458166612RetDNS11414*1594 2 Thed Björk4243243Ret2344232114Ret94 3 Robin RudholmRet111110922753362592680 4 Richard Göransson3111597453125991Ret3Ret75 5 Mattias Andersson65Ret103574Ret7525Ret966256 6 Jan "Flash" Nilsson533711165161218Ret73Ret9Ret54 7 Robert Dahlgren1Ret61617813RetDNS61Ret4Ret15♯5152 8 Tomas EngströmRet102671911847143Ret1238350 9 Johan Stureson787262RetRet419RetDNS7561RetRet48 10 Roger Eriksson96844387513RetRet411134Ret739 11 Pontus MörthRet912697881187415 12 Patrik Olsson1415161215111081398610138211914 13 Fredrik Ekblom119109810Ret10917RetRetDNS61451089 14 Thomas Schie879Ret5DNS7 15 Mikael Ohlsson151618DNSRetRet161415141072 16 Viktor Hallrup12131411131212131411131011127Ret13112 17 Andreas Simonsen12141181 18 Johan Kristoffersson10121213RetDNS141510101111Ret16Ret1012100 19 Tobias Tegelby15120 20 Dick Sahlén16171317141311121715Ret9129Ret1214130 21 Viktor Huggare13141515161513Ret1616151213101513Ret140 22 Claes HoffstenRetDNS1714RetDNS1516181812131414RetDNSDNSDNS0 23 Ronnie BrandtDNSDNSDNSDNS14Ret1515DNSDNS0 24 Tony JohanssonDNSDNSDNSDNSRetRet19Ret10Ret0Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap
* Tommy Rustad was given a 30 seconds time penalty for an incident in the start, dropping him from 7th to 14th place.
♯ Robert Dahlgren was docked 10 points in the drivers' championship, due to being deemed responsible for a crash with Thed Björk. Note that this penalty didn't affect the team score.
Team championship
The team championship was won by Polestar Racing, a single point ahead of West Coast Racing.
Pos Team Pts Prize money 1 Polestar Racing156300.000 SEK 2 West Coast Racing155400.000 SEK 3 Flash Engineering148100.000 SEK 4 MA:GP / IPS104200.000 SEK 5 CMS / NFA60 6 Engström Motorsport50 7 Biogas.se23
Semcon Cup
The results in the 2009 Semcon Cup were as follows:
Pos. Driver MAN KAR GÖT KNU FAL KAR VÅL KNU MAN Pts 1 Viktor Hallrup223121223342131Ret22133 2 Johan Kristoffersson1112RetDNS441223Ret6Ret211111 3 Dick Sahlén5525321165Ret121Ret334106 4 Viktor Huggare3344443Ret56643234Ret582 5 Mikael Ohlsson446DNSRetRet63442150 6 Claes HoffstenRetDNS53RetDNS55773544RetDNSDNSDNS42 7 Andreas Simonsen132134 8 Ronnie BrandtDNSDNSDNSDNS5Ret55DNSDNS12 9 Tobias Tegelby4311 10 Tony JohanssonDNSDNSDNSDNSRetRet8Ret1Ret11
References
External links STCC Official Website (Swedish) TouringCarTimes – STCC news in English