STCC driver to WTCC

[SEATFreak]

Toringcartimes.com reports Richard Goransson of STCC outfit Kristofferson Motorsport (KMS) may be set for a drive in the WTCC with RBM aftr being offered a drive by a team that run BMW's.

Richard is rumoured to be going to a team that run BMW's and as RBM look to extending the BMW 320i's to two RBM may be the destination.

But it is the same issue at stake. Sponsorship money. He needs money in order to enter. But as Thed Bjork looks like going to Audi in the DTM their will be two vacant seats at KMS.

[100%hondafan]

i hope he does go he showed strongly in the ETC last year beating pato zanardi ect and i think he could be one to watch :D

[SEATFreak]

Like I say I think it all depends on teammate Thed Bjork. It seems from the touringcartimes article that he will be unlikely to go to the WTCC if Thed goes to the DTM with Audi.

I don't know how many seats there is at KMS because until when I saw the article I didn't know the STCC existed what with TV not exactly brimming over with touring car racing, but it seems with there being two vacant seats would the team boss want two vacant seats knowing he may not be able to get in anyone in if the deals fall through?

But if you rate him highly then to be honest I am most bothered about whether he come to the WTCC if he is as good as you claim. :up:

[Driverdb]

I think you got the STCC drivers a bit mixed up. :)

Richard Goransson has never been a KMS Audi driver. Goransson started in STCC for West Coast Racing BMW Dealer Team in 2003. And won the championship for them in 2004 and 2005 as well as winning the European Touring Car Cup last year. For this season he switched to Flash Engineering's BMW team.

KMS had three Audi cars in 2006 driven by Thed Björk (who became champion), Fredrik Ekblom and team boss Tommy Kristoffersson.

Flash Engineering had two new BMW's with Jan "Flash" Nilsson and Richard Göransson. During the start of the season they also ran a third car (Flash's 2005 BMW) for Edward Sandstrom. Edward wrecked the car though in an accident and the team couldn't get enough money to buy a new one during the season.

West Coast Racing ran their two old BMW's from 2005 with Robin Rudholm in Richard Goransson's old car and Duncan Huisman in Thed Bjork's old one. Rudholm raced the old BMW (Goranssons 2005 winning car) quite well in the ETC this year and the british Eurosport commentator called him last year's champion a million times, getting Rudholm and Goransson mixed up. :D

For 2007 Rudholm and Ekblom is confirmed for WCR with new BMW's.

Bjork is aiming for DTM but will stay with KMS if that fails.

Goransson has a contract for 2007 with Flash Engineering but Flash has said that he won't stand in the way if Goransson wants to move to WTCC.

[SEATFreak]

I think I did mix things up! :)


we could have two open seats in the top teams of STCC

Reading that part of the article, unless you pay close attention to it, I guess it is possible to easily mistake it to mean "two open seats in the top team of STCC", missing out the "s" that pluralises team.

So assuming RBM is the BMW Team-Germany BMW works team run by Schnitzer (Because I notice the profiles of BMW Team UK and BMW Italy-Spain don't mention Schnitzer), with everything RBM has achieved this last season would Richard do well to accept the offer from RBM from the point of view of his career?

[Driverdb]

You weren't that far off though as Goransson and Bjork indeed have been teammates, but it was at West Coast Racing with BMW's in 2005. Bjork then went to KMS Audi and won the title. :)

I have no doubt Richard would want to go to WTCC and I have no doubt that he wouldn't make a fool of himself against the WTCC competitors.
I think it all boilds down to the funding of the drive. Getting the required budget from Swedish sponsors could be tricky as a lack of funding was indeed what ended Goransson's, Dahlgren's and Rudholm's international single seater careers and why they joined STCC instead. This time around he's pretty well known in Sweden so perhaps a few doors have opened.

[SEATFreak]

When talking about sponsorship does success play a big hand?

Because I know if I was a sponsor and I wanted a good marketable name to carry my company name to the front of touring car racing or any kind of racing where drivers need funding from backers or sponorship from companies, I would want to choose someone who doesn't need so much to be a consistent top driver (An Andy Priaulx or Matt Neal), but someone who drives consistently well in the top 8 and scores points on an almost regular basis.

TV airtime of the actual race is almost 90-95% focused on the frontrunners unless like with Darren Turner in Race 3 at Knockhill a top driver gets forced down the starting grid for whatever reason.

I know through seeing the STCC standings, Richard Goransson was I think second less than 5 points of the champion so I think he should do OK for sponsors.

[btracer]

I think I did mix things up! :)



So assuming RBM is the BMW Team-Germany BMW works team run by Schnitzer (Because I notice the profiles of BMW Team UK and BMW Italy-Spain don't mention Schnitzer), with everything RBM has achieved this last season would Richard do well to accept the offer from RBM from the point of view of his career?

RBM is Team BMW Uk who in 2006 ran Andy Priaulx to the title
and ran Jan Magnussen in Macau.

Ravaglia is Team Italy-Spain who in 2006 ran Alex Zanardi and Marcel Costa, who was replaced by Duncan Huisman

Neither are BMW Team-Germany. That is run by Schnitzer. So there are 3 works BMW teams in the WTCC.

Goransson is a good driver, I remember seeing him in Formula Ford in 01/02 i think will do well in the WTCC with a top team.

[Koppomsbo]

Richard was by far the fastest driver in STCC this year, but he made som big misstakes wich made him lose his title

[Driverdb]

Richard was by far the fastest driver in STCC this year, but he made som big misstakes wich made him lose his title

And the fact that the car wasn't that quick in the opening rounds. They had just got the cars together and had only done a shakedown I think before the start of the season.

[100%hondafan]

wish there was stcc coverage in the uk along with dtc

[Koppomsbo]

http://dtm.de/newsausgabe.php?id=5114

anyone who can translate this? Does this mean that all seats for Audi are taken for next year??

EDIT : http://www.touringcartimes.com/news.php?id=903

or maybe just read that one ;)

[Driverdb]

Richard Göransson has turned down his WTCC offer and will be staying in STCC for 2007.

The offer was from the Italian Pro Team and was for a "free" ride, but he had to finance his own salary and travel expenses. Göransson said in the article that 2006 was the first year in his career that he actually got paid to race and starting to pay for racing when he's got a paid seat and in with a serious title shot wasn't really all that interesting.

[DB5]

the latest roumor is that Frank Stippler will drive for KMS with Thed Bjork and Tommy Kristoffersson.

They do also say that theres still a small chance of Bjork going to DTM