James Thompson will drive for the Volvo Polestar Green Racing team in the 2011 edition of the STCC which has now fully transformed from Swedish to its new status of Scandinavian Touring Car Championship.

“We are very happy to welcome James Thompson to Volvo and Polestar. With his track record he should feel right at home with us. Volvo is the market leader in Sweden and our team Polestar has claimed four out of five possible titles here in the past two seasons” says Thomas Andersson, Managing Director for Volvo Cars Sweden”

James Thompson’s duties will extend beyond STCC. Derek Crabb, Executive Director for Motorsport at Volvo Car Corporation, explains:

“First and foremost, James job will be to fight for both STCC-titles for Volvo and Polestar. In addition, James will also be vital in Polestar’s job of evaluating World Touring Car Championship for us in 2011. Finally, James will also be a part of Volvo’s road car chassis dynamics development team together with Polestar WTCC-driver Robert Dahlgren”

With both the STCC and WTCC season closing in rapidly, the pace is high within Volvo Cars Motorsport and Polestar Racing. And in the middle of all, a very happy James Thompson is getting settled:

“I am absolutely delighted. Volvo and Polestar has presented a very clear step-by step plan with a long term potential. Above all, there is a fantastic confidence and a lot of energy here. Last week during my first official visit to Polestar and Volvo, I had a road car prototype test on the agenda the same day. Now it’s off to Spain for race car testing. I am really happy to be a part of this with Volvo and Polestar”

James Thompson’s first race as a Volvo driver will be on April 24 at Jyllandsringen in Denmark as Volvo embarks on its 16th consecutive STCC-season. He will drive Volvo’s most winning touring car to date, the ethanol powered Volvo C30 DRIVe racer, developed with Polestar.

“We have six names on the list of which three are from Sweden. We have come a bit further with one of the drivers, the only thing missing is a signature on the contract. If the deal goes through we will have a driver that holds high international standard,” said Engström.

It’s time to speculate, in other words. Perhaps it is time for Italian Roberto Colciago to come back to STCC? He ran three STCC seasons for KMS (Kristoffersson Motorsport) with the Audi A4 between 2000 and 2002 – where he ended his campaign as 2002 Swedish Touring Car Champion. In 2005 he raced a Honda Accord Euro-R in the World Touring Car Championship.

You can’t really talk about touring cars, Honda and international drivers without thinking James Thompson. He raced the Honda in the WTCC for N.Technology last year. James is probably looking for a BTCC seat though, but he did ran in the Danish Touring Car championship last year so he doesn’t seem too bothered with running in Scandinavia.

The third international driver might perhaps be Duncan Huisman. Duncan is a very capable driver and knows the tracks from his 2006 STCC season at West Coast Racing where he ended third in the championship. He also knows the new Gothenburg Street Track as he last year made a surprise guest appearance in the Camaro Cup support races – and won both races. Duncan has always said he would be more than willing to be back in the championship. He is however very much a BMW guy, so perhaps it’s a bit too much to turn his back on the German manufacturer.

As for the local drivers in with a shot it is a bit harder to speculate. The high profile drivers are all signed at the moment. Jens Edman has Honda experience. Alexander Storckenfeldt has been out of a drive since he lost his Volvo seat for the 2008 season. David Björk is a fast young driver. Daniel Haglöf is another fast driver, but with endless budget problems. Edward Sandström is fast and experienced…

“I’m extremely happy to be a part of Sweden’s most professional team! Now I know I will have an opportunity to fight for the championship”, Thed Björk says at the Flash Engineering website.

Björk raced the newly developed Honda Accord in Tomas Engström‘s team during 2008 and managed to end the championship in third place after three wins and six podium finishes in the new car.

Thed Björk has quite an impressive career behind him eventhough he’s only 28 years old. In 1999 he was Swedish and Nordic Formula 3 champion, in 2001 he was FIA SR2 Sportscar champion, in 2003 he was Swedish GTR champion and in 2006 he won the Swedish Touring Car Championship.

The two cars will be driven by three time STCC champion Fredrik Ekblom and former ADAC Volkswagen Polo Cup driver Patrik Olsson.

“The purpose of the entry is to show the potential of the bio gas fuel – Sweden’s best green fuel.”, says Håkan Buskhe of E-ON.

Fredrik Ekblom comments: “For me this is a big challenge. I’ve competed in the STCC for a total of nine seasons so to be able to take part from the beginning with a totally new racing concept with a clear environmental profile feels new, fresh and very exciting.”

Ekblom moves from the WestCoast Racing BMW team which last week announced that current champion Richard Göransson would join their squad alongside Robin Rudholm. With the Volkswagen Scirocco Ekblom will now switch to front wheel drive cars after a couple of seasons with the BMW 320′s.

At the moment, as far as Race Incident knows, the LPG fuels are not included in the allowed fuels for the STCC but with the strong environmental profile of the championship I guess there will be no problems for the two Volkswagens to be on the starting line in 2009.

Team mate to Göransson will be Robin Rudholm, who will stay for his fourth consecutive season with the team. Göransson will fill Fredrik Ekblom‘s seat who will, according to Touringcartimes, stay in the championship but will drive a front-wheel car for 2009. Swedish magazine Auto Motor & Sport reported on their website that Ekblom will be joining the new STCC Volkswagen team.

Flash Engineering’s team boss and driver Jan “Flash” Nilsson comments on Göransson’s departure on his homepage: “The reason for Richard Göransson’s move to WestCoast Racing is something only Richard knows himself. Personally I think his made a good short-term descision (more money in the wallet) but in the long-run a worse descision. Time will tell.”

Race Incident wonders on a slightly different note: how many STCC titles will Richard Göransson have to get before he’s considered for a WTCC drive?

The team has ambitions to run this car at the 2009 Silverstone Classic in the Super Touring class.

Get ready to be taken back to the wonderful days of Super Touring with Flash’s YouTube clip from the shakedown: