A strong field of 22 drivers are expected to take part in the opening round of the 2024 V8 Thunder Cars season, which starts this weekend at Anderstorp Raceway.
V8 Thunder Cars is starting their 2024 season at the legendary Anderstorp Raceway this weekend with a healthy field of 22 cars, adding two more competitors from the previously reported number of 20 entries.
From reigning champion Andreas Nilsson and series runner-up Tommie Eliasson, young stars Linus Holgersson and Julia Eliasson and talented veterans such as Anders Gustavson and Conny Brorsson, there’s no shortage of talent in the field that has been described by the series as “the strongest in many years”.
All eyes will be on Nilsson, who is looking for his third consecutive V8TC title. The driver from Norrtälje is certainly going to give everything that he got, as demonstrated by his strong performance in the pre-season test at Falkenberg.
Nilsson will continue to drive the gray-and-light green colored No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Racebil.se, as does Tommie who remains as the driver of Team Brorsson’s No. 52 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Tommie’s team owner Conny Brorsson is also contesting the title once again with the newer generation No. 22 Gavatec Ford Mustang.
The Team Trysil duo of Stein Frederic Akre and Mathias Hansen only announced their entry to the championship several days before the pre-season test at Falkenbergs, but the two Norwegians are a force to be reckoned with their yellow Chevrolet’s.
Other expected title contenders include Mantorp Park race winner Christoffer Bergström and former two-time champion Dennis Strandberg, both returning to the series on a full-time basis with Team Pampas and Snake Pit Racing respectively.
The Super Star championship, V8TC’s equivalent to the Legend Trophy in EuroNASCAR 2, is headlined by its reigning champion Gustavson, owner of the Norrköping-based tuner Gustavson Bil.
The task of retaining the Super Star crown will be a challenging one for Gustavson as Conny and Bergström have both declared their intention to take part in the championship for drivers at the age of 40 and above.
Despite this, never count out him or Robert Möller, back behind the wheel of StarCross’ No. 11 Ford Mustang. Another one to watch is Per-Olof “Pelle” Selerup, one of the only two drivers scheduled to race the Mercedes-Benz W205 C-Class silhouette.
Gustavson’s newer-gen No. 46 Swoosh Ford Mustang will be accompanied by a second Mustang, the No. 47 car driven by Johan Blomberg.
Other Super Star drivers include Nilsson’s teammate Håkan Sjöman, Team 4 Food Racing’s Ronny Olsson and Sommevie Engineering’s Johan Sommevie, the latter returning to the series after COVID took him out of the running in 2023.
Two Junior drivers that raced last year are returning to the grid in 2024: Reigning champion Holgersson and Julia, both racing for their self-owned teams LPH Motorsport and Julia Eliasson Motorsport.
Julia once again is tasked by Aspen to test their new environmentally friendly fuel, having been given the permit to use a different fuel mix from her opponents.
Isac Aronsson graduated from V8TC’s Young Driver Programme to make his debut with the No. 70 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, entered under the Isac Racing banner.
Times from the pre-season test suggest that Aronsson will be Holgersson’s closest contender in Junior, which for all intents and purposes works in the same way as the Junior Trophy in EuroNASCAR PRO.
Jonatan “Jonte” Engström, son of V8TC legend Tomas, will follow the footsteps of his father and join the series that led the Engström name to Swedish motoring success.
It’s currently unknown what team Jonte is registered for, but pre-season pictures suggest that he will drive StarCross’ No. 6 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Former EuroNASCAR Esports Series competitor Gustav Berggren also plans to make a debut, albeit in a full-time sense as he had already made sporadic appearances from 2019 to 2021.
Berggren’s Springfield Racing machine is the other Mercedes in the field, competing as the No. 5 Indian Motorcycles C-Class.
Three more drivers plan to make their first full V8TC effort in 2024: Dennis Jurlestam, Tommy Aker and Charbel Jomha. Out of the three, Jurlestam is the only one with past experience, having raced part-time in 2022 and 2023 with the metallic blue No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro.
Aker will also represent Norway with the Gulf Oil-colored No. 32 Loose Nuts Racing Ford Mustang. Jomha is Nyman Racing’s sole driver for 2024, opting to race here full-time due to difficulties with balancing a planned campaign in both V8TC and Legend Cars Sweden.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.