The Swedish Nika Racing outfit will enter the World Touring Car Championship full-time this year with a Chevrolet Cruze.
Nika have been responsible for running the Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden operation in the Scandinavian championship, taking Rickard Rydell to the drivers’ title in 2011.
They have also done a number of one-off entries in the WTCC, the most recent coming 12 months ago when Rydell finished fourth at Monza.
“This is a significant day in the history of Nika Racing,” said team principal Nicklas Karlsson. “We’ve been working towards a WTCC campaign for a number of years – mostly behind the scenes – and today’s announcement makes the dream come true.
“Following two highly successful seasons with Chevrolet in the STCC, we now feel ready to make this leap. We are fully aware that this is going to be an exceptionally tough challenge and we head into this season with humble mind, but our target is definitely to establish ourselves at this level in the longer term.”
Stefan Lindberg, Sporting Coordinator, added: “Having a team such as Nika Racing on the WTCC grid is massively positive for Swedish motorsport. Two STCC titles in two years proved that there is enough strength-in-depth within the team to manage this transition in the professional way required. And I believe that we’ll be able to spring one or two surprises this season.”
The team will announce the identity of their driver in due course. The team ran former WTCC racer Michel Nykjaer alongside Rydell during the 2012 STCC.
