Jessica Bäckman makes STCC appearance at Anderstorp

Swedish WTCR racer Jessica Bäckman will make a STCC appearance at Anderstorp this weekend, joining Brink Motorsport in an Audi RS 3 LMS.

WTCR racer Jessica Bäckman is set to make an appearance on home soil, as she joins Brink Motorsport for a one off in STCC – Scandinavia's premiere motorsport series – in an Audi RS 3 LMS TCR car. The Swedish racer has been one of the Nordic's most promising karting talents before fully focusing on a touring car career. Her choice has paid off, and she has competed in the most important international championships for touring cars ever since: from TCR UK, STCR Scandinavia and ADAC TCR Germany – with the big step up to a full-time seat in the continental series in 2019 bringing the young Swedish racer to international headlines as she became the first woman to step on the podium in the series. After another competitive season in TCR Europe, Bäckman – who races alongside her brother Andreas with Italian top team Target Competition – turned her dream into reality and advanced to WTCR, the Touring Car World Cup. She was the first woman to do so and scored points at her debut at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Jessica is currently third in the Junior class and is continuing a learning-oriented season with the new Hyundai Elantra N TCR car. But Bäckman is also no stranger to guest appearances in other TCR series: in 2019, she has entered 2 rounds in the German TCR championship and one round in the Swedish based STCC – claiming podiums in both the series. "It is two years since I competed in STCC and it ended well with a podium position" – said Jessica. Bäckman returns to home soil after a calendar break in WTCR, with the next event being scheduled for 9-10 October at Autodrom Most, Czech Republic, after the cancellation of the Asian rounds. The young Swedish talent – who is also part of the Swedish national team and has represented her home country in the first ever edition of the FIA Motorsport games in 2019 – will join Brink Motorsport for this new adventure in STCC, taking on a whole new car: the Audi RS 3 LMS TCR. "I am very happy to be back in Sweden again and this time I will get to try an Audi RS 3 LMS car for the first time together with Brink Motorsport which I look forward to working with." – she commented. "It will be a big challenge considering the limited preparations, but a challenge that I look forward to". The 2021 STCC season will start the second half of its campaign at Anderstorp Raceway, fourth round of the championship. The circuit has been the home of the Swedish GP from 1973 to 1978 and is to date the only Nordic host of a F1 race. "It is very fun to be able to welcome an FIA WTCR driver to the team and we have followed Jessica's progress in Europe the recent years where she has shown good potential." – added Ted Brink, team manager at Brink Motorsport. "It will be fun to see what we can create together, even if we have respect for the task as it will be a straight path into the hot air with extremely limited test opportunities''. One of the most popular racing series in Northern Europe, STCC's cars fully comply with the TCR regulations, and are thus identical to those employed in all the TCR national and international competitions. Jessica's experience, though, is so far limited to the Hyundai i30 and Elantra TCR cars, which will make the Anderstorp weekend an even more exciting challenge. The two free practice and qualifying sessions will get underway on Saturday September 4th, while the three races of the weekend will be contested on Sunday. STCC races are streamed live on the series virtual platform STCC Plus.