Moments of the touring car year 2019

It was a year of high drama in touring car racing across the world; and here, I pick out some of my favourite moments (in chronological order) across the various championships I attended in 2019 — with a selection from the WTCR — FIA World Touring Car Cup, the TCR Europe series, the British Touring Car Championship, and the TCR Scandinavia championship.

Today, from the first half of 2019, with more to follow.

Moment #1 — a key pole and victory for PWR Racing at Knutstorp

It was the first round of the 2019 TCR Scandinavia championship — the place was Knutstorp, in the Skåne region of southern Sweden in early May — and the Swedish-based championship started, pretty much as it ended, in almost sub-zero conditions, almost a cliché.

There was snow on the ground in the morning, which had begun to clear during the day, but a sudden snow shower then hit the track right in the middle of Friday afternoon’s qualifying session, causing a rather unusual set of circumstances for the field, who were also adjusting to the new Yokohama rubber, after having run with Michelin tyres during the previous two years competing with TCR-specification cars.

As the cars slid around and the drivers struggled for grip, it was Andreas Ahlberg, a relative back-marker in 2018, but whom was about to have a very strong season as the leading Volkswagen driver in the championshio, who appeared to have the perfect set-up for the slippery conditions.

At reigning teams’ champions PWR Racing, their two drivers Robert Dahlgren and Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky, were also struggling in the conditions.

Emil Axelssen, the new team manager and COO of the squad, and part-architect of Polestar Cyan Racing’s 2017 FIA World Touring Car Championship success, told Åhlin-Kottulinsky that she should run with what she felt most comfortable with, and with the grip levels so low, she opted against all odds for a full set of wets, while her competitors were braving slicks and mixed wets and slicks, considering the snowfall was a relatively light dusting.

The move turned out to be inspired, as the 26-year-old was able to place her Cupra TCR on pole position with a final flying run by 0.120 seconds ahead of Ahlberg’s Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.

It was the qualifying call that was vital, and a day later, she converted the pole position into her second career victory; this time, not from a reversed grid, but a genuine pole position, leading home team-mate and eventual champion Dahlgren in a PWR Racing 1–2 finish.

While that opening race was effectively the high-point of Åhlin-Kottulinsky’s season, it was a strong year throughout, as she’d notch up another four podium finishes.

I’ll talk more about team-mate Dahlgren’s season later…

Moment #2 — A protest nearly sees the grid decimated at Zandvoort

Next up, and it’s just two weeks’ later at Zandvoort for the fourth round of the WTCR — FIA World Touring Car Cup. The Dutch circuit had played host to a dramatic 2018 race weekend, when the four Hyundai i30 N TCRs struggled with their increased Balance of Performance (BoP) measures, carrying 100mm of ride height around the circuit, and failed to pick up a single point all weekend despite having set the benchmark in the three races prior.

This time, it was the Lynk & Co marque who were recovering from a bad race, with the Chinese manufacturer’s cars having proved to be highly noncompetitive at the Slovakiaring, so they were gifted a weight break and power increase in order to equalise the apparent disparity in pace just ahead of Zandvoort.

Unfortunately, it would soon appear that the redress had overcompensated, as the four Cyan Racing-run cars locked out the top four spots on the grid in qualifying on Saturday, with more than half a second separating the slowest of their four drivers, Yann Ehrlacher, with the next car, that of Spanish driver Mikel Azcona’s Cupra TCR.

The various teams’ representatives and car builders all descended on the technical regulations holder, WSC Group, in their hospitality in the paddock, convening an urgent meeting with all team managers invited; though the Cyan Racing managers failed to attend due to the late notice, which caused one of the team’s drivers, Yvan Muller, to protest about a conspiracy of a secret meeting to the media the next day.

It was understood that all the Volkswagen Group teams, PWR Racing, Comtoyou Racing, WRT and Sébastien Loeb Racing, would withdraw their cars should the BoP decision not be immediately reversed, which would have taken 12 cars off the grid — and Hyundai were also looking to follow suit, which would take off another four.

Regardless of the protest, the TCR promoter said it was clear an adjustment was needed in any case, and the extraordinary decision to adjust the BoP mid-weekend was made, and co-approved by the FIA.

Cyan Racing still claimed a 1–2 in Saturday afternoon’s race, while things closed up a little on Sunday, although the team still locked out the top three positions on the grid in qualifying, this time by a substantially smaller margin.

Muller in fact had initially placed his car on pole, and was some way clear of his team-mates, but his car was later found to have exceeded its boost limit and was excluded, leaving his nephew Yann Ehrlacher to start from pole position for Race 3 ahead of Thed Björk’s 03 TCR, with Björk going on to win following a deployment of team orders following a pre-race agreement.

Moment #3 — Hard racing at Skellefteå for the Swedes

Touring car racing is often considered to be one of the most contact heavy motorsport categories there is — with damaged cars, and penalty-strewn race weekends the norm in the WTCR/WTCC, and even more so in the spiritual home of touring car racing, the UK’s BTCC.

However, the Swedes never really got that memo.

Besides a few rough and ready years in the Super Touring era, with plenty of international intervention setting the standards (please look up Roberto Colciago, the 2001–2002 STCC champion), the STCC and TCR Scandinavia championship in recent years has been a very civilised affair — despite having produced such hard-racing exports as 2017 World Touring Car champion Thed Björk and two-time World Rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson.

However, it all changed at Skellefteå — the newest race on the TCR Scandinavia calendar.

In mid-June, in searing heat (by Swedish standards that is; I think it got to near 19 degrees, which I’ve discovered is ‘shirtless & bikini weather’), Robert Dahlgren, who was by-and-large the fastest driver throughout the season, was on fire during practice (sorry, I’ll stop the heat puns soon).

At his home circuit, in the north of the country, where in June it doesn’t actually ever get dark, and in his car which was sponsored by the local energy company Skellefteå Kraft, the 39-year-old dominated both practice sessions in his PWR Racing Cupra TCR, while the others looked set to follow in his wake.

Come qualifying however, it was his PWR Racing team this time who were to make a strategic error, with Brink Motorsport, who had stepped up a level this year and would go on to win the teams’ title, capitalising.

Opting for one run in the ten-minute Q2 session, Dahlgren set a strong marker for pole position, but his title rival Andreas Wernersson was guided remotely by famed race engineer Ronnie Bergstrom, who suggested there was an opportunity to go for two shots at pole despite the 1m 53s top lap time.

On Wernersson’s second run on fresh Yokohama tyres, the Audi driver snatched pole by almost four-tenths of a second from Dahlgren, very much spoiling the 2017 champion’s day.

Come race day, Wernersson got the jump on Dahlgren at the start and led the first ten laps of the 11-lap race, with Dahlgren on his tail throughout.

The gloves came off on the final lap, as Wernersson left half a door’s width open at the start of the final lap, which allowed Dahlgren pounce and push his way through into the lead.

A clearly angry Wernersson set upon the Cupra driver, and towards the hairpin, made a do-or-die move, with the end result only set to end one of two ways — Wernersson taking the lead, or both drivers flying off into the gravel.

Dahlgren gave way, and Wernersson was through, but a mistake in the final sector allowed Dahlgren straight back at Wernersson, and he had a run up the inside into the final turn, leading to a photo-finish between the two battle-scarred cars — Wernersson would pip Dahlgren by 22-thousandths of a second, an incredible victory.

Thankfully for Dahlgren, he was able to put on a gallant performance from fifth on the grid in Race 2 to take the win in front of an emphatic home crowd — capping off a day of tough racing in the evening sunshine in Sweden.

Moment #4 — A heroic home win for Tiago Monteiro, but heartache for Attila Tassi and Cyan Racing

Next, it’s the start of July, and it’s the topsy-turvy end of the European leg of the WTCR — FIA World Touring Car Cup season.

Norbert Michelisz and the BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse squad had dominated on Saturday, with their chief rivals, Honda, completely off the pace.

Sunday, and it was all-change, as Honda (and also the Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeos) all leapt to the front of the time sheets, with young Hungarian Attila Tassi leading the way throughout qualifying, topping each segment to put his KCMG Civic TCR on pole. This was despite the fact that KCMG had been absolutely nowhere all season so far, certainly in comparison to the title contending Münnich Motorsport Hondas of Néstor Girolami and Esteban Guerrieri.

Tassi was on pole for Race 3, ahead of his team-mate, and local man Tiago Monteiro, who had secured his best qualifying position since before his horrific accident in testing almost two years’ earlier.

Honda explained the reason for the upturn in performance from KCMG — and that was now that they were fully sharing the data across their two teams, in order to compete with the effective four-car teams of Hyundai (BRC Racing Team) and Lynk & Co (Cyan Racing).

This story didn’t seem to ring true, as it turned out Portugal was very much a flash in the pan for the KCMG outfit, while Münnich Motorsport remained competitive for the remainder of the season, only narrowly missing out on the title in December, while KCMG would finish last in the teams’ standings.

The flash was all the home fans needed however, as their man Monteiro was right up there, chasing team-mate Tassi for the win, and when Tassi slowed out of the lead an engine issue, the Portuguese driver was simply counting the laps as the fans cheered out louder for their man on every lap.

Monteiro would take an incredible home win ahead of his friend and former team-mate Yvan Muller, with Muller’s nephew and team-mate Yann Ehrlacher standing together with him on the podium for the first time, a moment which Muller would dedicate to his subdued Cyan Racing squad, who had sadly lost one of their mechanics due to a non-race-related medical issue the night before.

The race was a fantastic achievement for Monteiro, who’d battled against all odds to take an incredible comeback victory at home, a season highlight for the Portuguese driver, who would finish on the podium just one more time in 2019.