Meeting His Destiny In Quite A Similar Way

Meet Robert Dahlgren.

He's a Bloody Volvo Driver ®, and he's come to Australia to drive a Volvo S60 in the V8 Supercar Series for the team formerly known as Garry Rogers Motorsport. The long-time Holden faithful have done themselves a nice deal to become the Aussie branch of Volvo's expanding motorsport programme, so as of Clipsal this year they're no longer GRM: they're Volvo Polestar Racing.

We'll skip the irony of using the Polestar name in the Southern Hemisphere and go straight to who they are; Polestar are to Volvo what AMG are to Mercedes and FPV are were to Ford, in-house performance specialists that build hot Volvos for consumption and liaise with the racing teams. Polestar have made a moderate splash in this country with a tuned, limited-edition Volvo S60, predictably called the Polestar, and the word is it's pretty good - just not quite good enough to take on AMG, HSV and the M-Division. The engine isn't quite exciting enough and there's a tad too much understeer to call it a true sports sedan, but overall it's a decent first try for a company that's always been the very antithesis of performance motoring. For the first time Volvo have built a car enthusiasts might actually want to drive, instead of one they wish they were driving when the inevitable crash happens.

Enough sarcasm: I for one welcome our new Swedish overlords, packing up your whole life and moving to Australia as Dahlgren has deserves serious respect, regardless of how much success results (yes, I'm sending some good will to Alex Prémat, GRM's last Euro import, who by "mutual agreement" has decided to return to Europe rather than continue making up the numbers here. Sorry it didn't work out, Alex: brofist for even trying). But Dahlgren isn't exactly a stranger to the V8 paddock, having raced British Formula Ford against our own James Courtney and then British Formula 3 against Will Davison, taking the title in '03. Weirdly, he won his big prize - the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship - the same year as Courtney too, in 2010.

That's one more top-level touring car title than Scott McLoughlin, the kid who's almost certainly going to make his life absolute holy hell this year. Scott's already shown he has a knack for these machines, which are nothing like European-style touring cars Dahlgren's used to, which make their laptime under braking and turn-in. By contrast, NASCAR star Kurt Busch tried an Aussie V8 in Austin and found it reminded him of a GT car, but with vastly more power and deceptively fast mid-corner speeds. His summary was: "It's a muscle car, but it's a sports car at the same time."

It will be a big change, especially when I start racing. When you're at the point of overtaking, passing and start procedures, that will be the small thing. The big thing will be to adapt to the cars, the championship and getting used to the media around the championship. Everything is new. - Robert Dahlgren

Everything, including the car. GRM have lots of experience building V8 racecars, but until now it's been with Chevrolet's Holden's battle-hardened mechanicals. This will be the first time they've run with a Volvo engine, which didn't even exist this time last year. Amazingly, Volvo declined Mark Skaife's offer of a generic "category engine" and instead developed a new 4.4-litre V8 of their own, which they've stretched out to the 5-litre limit and say they're "very happy" with the figures it's producing. Aero testing is now done as well and the shape has been locked off by laser scanning and saving it as a 3D model, and if VPR deviate too far from the model they'll start attracting penalties. I sincerely hope they don't, because even in Westinghouse White the S60 looks properly beasty, like something the Stig would use for school runs ("Some say he actually drives a Volvo..."). Clipsal will have to tell whether it has the go to match the show, but like the Erebus Mercs, at least it'll have a soundtrack all its own.

Dahlgren has superstition on his side as well: last time a man named Robbie raced a Volvo in the ATCC, it won the championship and gave us our first Kiwi champion (that was 1985 if you're curious: the car was a square-ended, slab-sided geography teacher-esque Volvo 240 Turbo. Dick Johnson derided it as a block of flats on wheels, and even the team name sounded like a joke - keep a straight face and tell me "Volvo Dealer Team" doesn't sound like something made up by Mel Brooks. But they also had John Bowe and the team manager was John Sheppard, who'd managed HDT the year Brocky crushed 'em, so yes, they did win. That's also one more ATCC crown than Mercedes-Benz have ever managed, if you're keeping score, so this year it seems to me the Erebus Mercedes and Volvo Polestar teams have the clear goal of beating each other).

Anyway... unfamiliar car, unfamiliar circuits, a red-hot teammate tipped as a future champion: Robert Dahlgren has the world's hardest job this year. I wish you well sir, and hope your debut down under brings more encouragement than heartbreak. Our job as spectators will be almost as hard, though - we'll have to stifle the giggles whenever you talk to the press.