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Carsales Staff17 Jun 2013
NEWS

Swedish drivers linked with Volvo V8 program

Polestar drivers Dahlgren or Ekblom could be in line for V8 Supercar seat in 2014

A Swedish driver could be part of the driving line-up for Volvo’s 2014 attack on the V8 Supercars championship with Garry Rogers Motorsport.

While details were still being held back before today's official announcement of the Volvo Car Australia/Polestar alliance with GRM, motoring.com.au has learned that a Polestar driver, most likely Robert Dahlgren or Fredrik Ekblom, is being linked with the team.

Currently New Zealand 20-year old Scott McLaughlin and 31-year old Frenchman Alex Premat drive Fujitsu-backed Holden VF Commodore for GRM.

If 33-year old Dahlgren was to step into a full-time drive he would most likely replace the inconsistent Premat, given rookie McLaughlin has already won two races this year and is rated by many as the promising talent to hit the category since Craig Lowndes.

Dahlgren was in Australia earlier this year for the launch of the Volvo V40 and the Top Gear Festival at Eastern Creek and is back in Australia now, nominally for the media launch of the S60 Polestar which coincides with today's V8 Supercars announcement in Brisbane.

Dahlgren, who has been a Volvo factory driver for a decade, has played a key role in the development of the S60 Polestar road car.

Prior to linking with Volvo, Dahlgren won the British Formula Ford championship in 2001, the year after Aussie James Courtney, who now races for the Holden Racing Team.

Putting Dahlgren into the heart of the V8 Supercars program would make plenty of sense, considering his acknowledged analytical and engineering ability. He would form an invaluable link between Polestar in Sweden, which will provide engineering support to the program in the same way HWA in Germany does for the Erebus Mercedes-Benz AMG team.

Ekblom, 42, won the inaugural TTA Racing League championship in his first season driving for Polestar in 2012.

If Dahlgren or Ekblom are confirmed, it will detune a V8 Supercars drivers’ silly season that is just starting to bubble. .

Courtney and Ford Performance Racing’s Will Davison both come out of contract this year and the prospect of a new manufacturer with money potentially to spend on a name driver is something their respective managers would have been investigating.

Courtney may well end up heading overseas, as has been speculated for some time.

“There are plenty of things out there,” he said recently.

Davison’s position is different. While he has won races at FPR and threatened for the championship in 2012, Ford’s indecision about its future sponsorship of the factory team means he is unsure whether he should sign again on the dotted line. No Blue Oval support potentially has massive implications for the team’s competitiveness.

"Several interesting options (for drives) have emerged over the past couple of weeks, so there's a bit to think about ... at the same time I am trying to stay totally focussed on the championship, as the only Ford driver able to win it,” Davison said.

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