Volvo Polestar Racing will make a one-off return to the World Touring Car Championship at the next round in Shanghai, China, with Swedish driver Thed Björk set to race for the Swedish manufacturer.
“We are entering this race to check the pulse of WTCC, as well as celebrating Thed Björk’s amazing performance in the STCC this year,” said Motorsport Commercial Director Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin.
Justifying the team’s decision to return to the WTCC, Murdzevski Schedvin said that the marque still holds the WTCC in high regard, especially for racing smaller models.
“We moved our focus to the Volvo S60 model as our primary car for motorsport in 2012, the model that we are currently racing in Sweden and USA and that we will race in the Australian V8 Supercars next year,” said Murdzevski Schedvin.
“While our S60 model does not match WTCC well today, we still think WTCC represents possibly the best value for money and one-fits-all global motorsport solution if you want to race with a smaller c-segment car. Consequently, we are keen on staying closely informed and this is precisely our objective with Shanghai, not outright performance and results.”
The team will fill a single Volvo C30 1.6T in the two races in China. The team last competed in the WTCC during the 2011 season, when Robert Dahlgren campaigned the same C30 for the entire season, scoring a best result of fourth in Germany. The team have, however, never raced at Shanghai as the Chinese round in 2011 was held at the Tianma circuit.
Björk, who recently clinched the 2013 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship (STCC) title for Volvo, will be making his WTCC début and is looking forward to the opportunity it presents.
“I am looking forward to make my WTCC debut with Volvo and I am very grateful to get this opportunity,” said Björk, 32. “The WTCC is a very competitive championship and the challenge for us is going to be great, but that is only fueling my motivation.
“We know that we have got a tough race weekend ahead of us as we never before have raced at the circuit. We keep our ambitions realistic, to make it to the top ten would be a great result, but our main mission is to gather data and information. Nonetheless, I am going to give my very best and there is no doubt that we have two exciting races ahead of us.”