Camaro Cup, officially the Camaro Cup 2000, is a Swedish-based stock car racing series using Chevrolet Camaro Z28s.

History

The idea about an American class in Swedish racing was born by the SSK acting director Robin Shorter in 1974. He spread his idea to active racers and to dealers selling American car brands. Work was begun by a group of people, including Shorter, Sven Hjansons, Picko Troberg and Göran Boström, to start a series called the ''Woodhead Super Star Cup''. The first season was held in 1975 and was won by Bo "Emma" Emanuelsson, who also won the first ever race of the championship, held at the SSK premiere at Kinnekulle Ring. The series continued for several more seasons and had a couple of famous drivers including Swedish

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship ...

driver

Reine Wisell Reine Wisell (30 September 1941 – 20 March 2022) was a Swedish racing driver. He participated in 23 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 4 October 1970. He achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 13 championship points. ...

. 1982 saw the class being changed into the Swedish Super Saloon championship and it was opened for other manufacturers.
Super Saloon was a somewhat extreme championship concerning the cars participating - e.g. Volkswagens and Porsches with double turbos. Some of the old Camaro Cup drivers stayed, including two-times champion Peter Norlander who won the premiere in a

space frame In architecture and structural engineering, a space frame or space structure ( 3D truss) is a rigid, lightweight, truss-like structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometric pattern. Space frames can be used to span large areas wit ...

Camaro. In 1988 Camaro Cup was resumed, with Boström being one of the driving forces behind the series' resumption. Between 1994-1998 the series was dominated by

Thomas Engström Thomas Engström (born 1975), is a Swedish novelist and journalist. His third novel, ''West of Liberty'', was published in October 2013 by Albert Bonniers Förlag. The book was the first in a series of political thrillers featuring former Stasi ...

, winning five driver's titles.
The first cars of the current generation of Camaro Cup cars took to the track in 1999. The old cars were phased out during 2000, when two classes (one with the new cars and one with the old cars) was run. Some of the old cup cars later found a new home in the

V8 Challenge EA Digital Illusions CE AB (trade name: DICE) is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. The company was founded in 1992 and has been a subsidiary of Electronic Arts since 2006. Its releases include the '' Battlefield'', ''Mirror's Ed ...

championship organized by the Swedish Long-distance Championship (SLC). During 2000 the series was called Super Stock Racing. Camaro Cup had for several years run as a support series to the

Swedish Touring Car Championship Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) was a touring car racing series based in Sweden, but also with rounds in Norway. They began operating in 1996, heavily influenced by the British Touring Car Championship and the success of BTCC racing on Sw ...

, but in 2004 it was axed and was forced to return to its SSK roots. The 2005 season was a miserable one, with an average of six cars per weekend, and the grid never made it over seven cars. To bolster the number of starters other SSK classes were added, including old

Super Touring Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created ...

cars such as the Audi A4 Quattro and BMW 320i.
2006 saw the series somewhat return to its former glory. It returned as a part of the STCC program, and grid sizes increased to around 20 cars again. Several notable drivers made guest appearances, including ex-F1 test driver and current Formula Nippon driver

Björn Wirdheim Björn Karl Michael Wirdheim (born 4 April 1980) is a Swedish professional racing driver. He is the son of Örnulf Wirdheim, also a racing driver. Björn began racing karts, competing in his first race, at the age of 10. His main achievement to ...

, OMV Kronos

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

WRC driver Daniel Carlsson, Junior WRC champion Per-Gunner Andersson and STCC driver Edward Sandström. As of February 2006, 24 cars have confirmed their entry for the full 2007 season.

Games

Camaro Cup is one of the two available championships (along with STCC) in the Digital Illusions, CE

PC game A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-dete ...

''STCC 2''. It is also included in SimBin Studios's game ''

STCC – The Game ''Race 07'' is a racing simulator computer game from SimBin Studios (later Sector3 Studios). The game is the sequel to the 2006 title ''Race – The Official WTCC Game''. Like the original ''Race'', the title is officially licensed by the World To ...

'' (2008 season) and its sequel ''STCC – The Game 2'' (2010 season).

Champions

References

External links

* {{Chevrolet Camaro Chevrolet Camaro Auto racing series in Sweden Stock car racing series One-make series Stock car racing