Swedish Touring Car Championship

Infobox motorsport championship
current_season =

pixels = 200px
caption =
category = Touring cars
inaugural = 1996
drivers = 23 (2008)
teams = 15 (2008)
constructors =
engines =
country/region =
folded =
champion driver = "2008:"
champion team = "2008:" West Coast Racing
manufacturer = "2008:" BMW
website = http://www.stcc.se/

Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) is a touring car racing series based in Sweden, but also with rounds in Norway. They began operating in 1996, heavily influenced by the British Touring Car Championship and the success of BTCC racing on Swedish television. There is also smaller series that compete with their races alongside STCC; Radical, the Camaro Cup, Superkart, Pro Superbike, the JTCC and the Carrera Cup.

Rules

The cars are built according to the Super 2000 rules used in FIA WTCC. A national counterpart, N2000, also exist in order to encourage teams to build their own cars without having to have them homologated by FIA. So far Audi, Volvo, Opel and Mercedes have constructed their own cars.

Points System (as of 2006)
*1st: 10
*2nd: 8
*3rd: 6
*4th: 5
*5th: 4
*6th: 3
*7th: 2
*8th: 1

Qualifying & Race
Every racing weekend consist of the following:
* Qualifying: A 20-minute qualifying session open to all drivers. The eight fastest drivers go on to drive in the Super pole, while drivers from 9th quickest and backwards start in the qualifying order.
* Super Pole: A one-lap shootout for the eight first grid positions. The driver with the 8th qualifying time is the first to do his Super Pole lap, then the 7th driver and so on.
* Race: There is one race in a race weekend, and each race is approximately 40 minutes in length. All races uses rolling starts and a pit stop with where at least two tires must be changed is mandatory for all drivers.

TV Coverage

STCC was first aired in 1997 on SVT, featured in the program called "Race" along with the British Touring Car Championship. BTCC was dropped by SVT at the end of the 1999 season and was replaced by CART, while STCC stayed. When BTCC (which had been the main focus of Race), STCC was upgraded to be the series which the program had its focus on. Previously when BTCC and STCC clashed, the STCC races were shown in-between the two BTCC races. This was changed for the 2000 season, and now CART was shown in-between the two STCC races. In 2002 VEIDEC Trophy, a motorcycle class that raced on the STCC-weekends, replaced CART on the program. All Race programs were either 30 or 45 minutes in length, depending on if one or two series were featured.
In 2003 STCC coverage moved from SVT to TV4. The program was now shown on TV4 Plus, a channel which not everyone had access to (at the time only SVT1, SVT2 and TV4 was available to all viewers for free). TV4 only kept STCC for a year, selling it to TV3. The races appeared again in a highligts format on TV3 during 2004, but in 2005 the coverage was extended to include several hours of live coverage from each race weekend on the TV3-owned sports channel Viasat Sport.
In 2006 STCC returned to SVT and Race, again being available to all viewers, but coverage was cut down to only a 30-minute highlight program.

Car brands

The cars competing in the STCC are (as of 2007): Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Honda, Mercedes, Opel, Peugeot and Volvo.

Previous champions

External links

* [http://www.stcc.se/ STCC official site]
* [http://www.touringcartimes.com/ TouringCarTimes - STCC news in English]

navbox
name = stcc
title = Swedish Touring Car Championship:
state=collapsed

group1 = STCC Seasons
list1 = 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008

group2 = Carrera Cup Seasons
list2 =

group3 = Pro Superbike Seasons
list3 =