As part of their initiative to break into global markets, Chinese car company Lynk & Co have teamed up with Cyan Racing to compete in the 2019 edition of the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR).
Of course, Cyan Racing are no strangers to elite touring car competition. The Swedish outfit have previously won world touring car championships while competing as a factory-backed Volvo team, and it’s these links to Volvo which make the new partnership so logical. After all, Volvo and Lynk & Co are both owned by Chinese parent company, Geely.
With the announcement of Lynk & Co’s arrival to the WTCR, the number of marques expected to be represented in next year’s championship has risen to at least eight. As such, the Chinese brand will be able to promote their product against some of the most established European and Asian car companies in the business.
Reigning World Touring Car champion, Thed Bjork, is the first driver to be announced as part of the three-car team. As a former Volvo factory driver, Bjork has plenty of positive memories from competing within the Cyan Racing stable, and will undoubtedly be eager to repeat his past successes with the team.
WTCR promoter, Francois Ribeiro, had this to say about the arrival of a new marque to WTCR: “With the first season of the WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup presented by OSCARO still heading for its eagerly-awaited climax, we are thrilled to already welcome Lynk & Co as the eighth brand to be represented in the championship. And as a world title-winning team, Cyan Racing is ideally placed to chase success on track for Lynk & Co.”
Victor Yang, Vice President of Communications at Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, added: “The fusion between Lynk & Co and Cyan Racing will form the spearhead of our automotive performance debut. The combination of Lynk & Co’s challenge of auto industry conventions and Cyan Racing’s vast motorsport and performance experience are two key elements in this unique cooperation.”
Christian Dahl and Thed Bjork also had their say on the announcement, which took place today at Fuji Speedway in Japan. Dahl, CEO of Cyan Racing, said: “Our ambition as a race team is to reclaim our world title and explore new ways of automotive performance together with Lynk & Co. We will utilise our experience from past performance road car projects in combination with the vast data that we will gain from the racing programme through thousands and thousands of laps on racing circuits all over the world in extreme conditions.”
Bjork, meanwhile, spoke of his thoughts on being reunited with the team that he became WTCC champion with in 2017: “To once again aim for the world title when starting my seventh season with Cyan Racing is a dream coming true, especially combined with this ground-breaking cooperation with Lynk & Co that will include the development of a high-performance concept road car is nothing less than amazing.”
