Andreas Bäckman kicks off the STCC season in Ljungbyhed

This weekend, June 3^rd-4^th, it's time for Andreas Bäckman to kick off the season in the STCC championship - with the new Audi RS 3 LMS TCR car and for a new team Lestrup Racing Team.
- I am looking forward to competing again and extra fun to be back in STCC. It will be a challenging weekend in a new car and also on the Ljungbyhed track, which I have never competed on before, Andreas Bäckman says.

STCC (Scandinavian Touring Car Championship) is Sweden's most prestigious motorsport championship and is today the leading class for Touring Car Racing in Sweden. The cars are built according to the global TCR regulations, which means that the cars used in STCC are the same as those in the other TCR series around the world.

The series consists of six races that are run on different Swedish tracks and this weekend, June 3^rd-4^th, the premiere of the championship will be run on Ljungbyheds Motorbana, which is located near Helsingborg, Sweden.

Andreas has together with the team Lestrup Racing Team prepared before the STCC season three weeks ago with the 12-hour race Hankook 12h Hockenheimring on the classic Formula 1 track Hockenheimring. The 12-hour race gave both the team and the drivers the opportunity to get to know the new Audi RS 3 LMS TCR car before the STCC premiere. Andreas shared the car in the 12-hour race together with Oliver Söderström, Emil Sällberg and Marcus Fluch and they finished in the 3rd position in both the TCR and TCE classes.

The structure of the STCC championship
The 2022 season in STCC will consist of six competitions around Sweden, from Skellefteå in the north to Ring Knutstorp in the south. The start of the season will take place in Ljungbyhed and will end on the well-known Mantorp Park track near Linköping. In addition to Mantorp Park, the championship will also visit the well-known track Anderstorp where Formula 1 races were arranged in the 70s. The other courses on the calendar are Drivecenter Arena in Fällfors, which is located near Skellefteå, and Gelleråsen Arena near Karlskoga and Ring Knutstorp near Helsingborg.

The first event in Ljungbyhed is structured a little differently compared to the other events, as the competition weekend consists of two test sessions, a shoot-out qualifying and one race. The other events during the season will consist of two test sessions, two qualifying sessions Q1 (20 minutes) and Q2 (10 minutes) and three races. Points are awarded to the top five in the qualifying and the top 15 in each race.

The shoot-out qualifying at the season start in Ljungbyhed differs from the other events in that each driver only gets one qualifying lap each, where the lap time determines the starting positions for the race. This means that the qualifying will be even more decisive, as a slightest mistake on your only attempt may mean that you have to start further back in the race.

- I am looking forward to competing again and extra fun to be back in STCC. It will be a challenging weekend in a new car that we have not been able to test so much yet and also the Ljungbyhed track that I have never competed on before, so it will be exciting to see during the weekend how we are against our competitors, Andreas Bäckman says.

The event are broadcasted LIVE at STCC+
The STCC weekend at Ljungbyhed are broadcasted LIVE at: plus.stcc.se
Live-timing:
raceresults.se
livetiming.getraceresults.com
More information about STCC can be found here: stcc.se

Timetable for this weekend (STCC round 1 - Ljungbyhed):
(all times are in CEST/Swedish time)

Friday June 3^rd:
14:10 Test 1
16:30 Test 2

Saturday June 4^th:
11:00 Shoot-out Qualifying
14:30 Race (Broadcasted LIVE on plus.stcc.se)

About the track (Ljungbyheds Motorbana):

Located in: Ljungbyhed, Sweden
Length: 2,020 km
Corners: 10
Race duration: 18 laps (16 minutes + 1 lap)
Lap record (TCR): 51.489s

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