Volvo approves WTCC participation

Polestar Racing, official Volvo Motorsport partner since 1996, were given green light by Volvo Cars to enter one C30 car for Robert Dahlgren in the 2011 WTCC season.

According to Volvo’s press release “Racing results in 2011, however important, will be second priority. Polestar’s first and foremost task is to evaluate the car and the championship to provide Volvo Cars with a technical and commercial base to finalize an official Volvo entry from 2012.”

”We are very happy and proud for this vote of confidence. It will be a challenge for us but we have been prepared for this for several years. Our organization is in place and we have already started the preparation,” said Christian Dahl, Managing Director at Polestar Racing.
Volvo has won titles in the 1985 European Touring Car Championship, the 1998 British Touring Car Championship and more recently in the Swedish and Scandinavian Touring Car Championships. Now the Swedish manufacturer is set to take the first step for a comeback to international motorsport.

”Volvo has a long standing tradition in touring car racing and through the WTCC we see a potential for converting this into a global commercial tool from 2012. It is vital that technical and commercial aspects of the series align with our ambitions and this is what Polestar will answer for us in 2011,” explained Magnus Jonsson, Volvo Cars Senior Vice President of Product Development and chairman of the Motorsport Board.

WTCC General Manager Marcello Lotti commented: “It is with the greatest satisfaction that we welcome Volvo’s participation to the 2011 WTCC. They supported us back in 2002 when we launched the FIA S2000 class in the European Touring Car Championship, and now they are back again the moment we adopt new technical rules, which shows their trust in the FIA and our organization. To have such an important brand backing WTCC in these difficult times for motorsport is a big boost for all of us, and I am confident that Volvo’s move will have a positive impact on those car manufacturers that have showed interest in joining the championship.”

Meanwhile Volvo and Polestar are focusing on the end of the current season. Freshly crowned Scandinavian champion, Dahlgren can clinch a second consecutive Swedish Touring Car Championship title this weekend at Mantorp Park before making his second WTCC appearance of the year at Okayama.