Rickard Rydell
Rydell at the firstRing Knutstorp round of the2012 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship season.
Nationality	Swedish
Born	(1967-09-22)22 September 1967 (age 57) Vallentuna, Sweden
World Touring Car Championship career
Debut season	2005
Current team	NIKA Racing
Car number	69
Former teams	SEAT Sport Chevrolet
Starts	100
Wins	5
Poles	3
Fastest laps	5
Best finish	5th in2008
Previous series
2012 2011 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2004 2004 2003 2003 2002 2001 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1992 1991 1990 1990 1989 1988–89, 1987–88 1987	STCC STCC WTCC WTCC WTCC WTCC WTCC TC2000 STCC (Sweden) ETCC V8 Supercars ETCC ETCC STCC (Sweden) FIA GT Championship BTCC BTCC BTCC BTCC BTCC BTCC BTCC All-Japan F3 Championship All-Japan F3 Championship Japanese Formula 3000 British F3 Championship British Formula 3000 All Japan Sports Prototype International Formula 3000 British F3 Championship Swedish F3 Championship European F3 Cup
Championship titles
1998 2011	BTCC STCC

John Rickard Rydell^[1] (born 22 September 1967) is a retiredSwedishracing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car Championship.

Rydell was born inVallentuna, Stockholm. Initially he trained to be an accountant at AB Rydell,^[2] his family's flower boutique business, but was bitten by the racing bug.^[3] In the early 1990s, he raced in variousFormula Three series. He also wonpole position in the 1991Macau Grand Prix, and won the 1992 race. He competed inJapanese F3 in 1992 and 1993,British F3 in 1989 and1991, and the Swedish F3 series in 1987 and 1988. In 1990, he raced inF3000. In 1984–1985, he won the Swedish 100ccgo kart championship.

His first year in the BTCC was1994, when his car was quite distinctive, driving aVolvo 850Estate, when it was normal to racesaloons. TheTWR team switched to a saloon in1995 and Rydell took pole for 13 of the 24 races, but due to several slow starts he won only 4 times and he finished on podium 7 times. At the end of the year he was third in the championship, a result repeated in1996 although Audi dominated withFrank Biela he was able to score 4 victories and 6 podium. In1997 Volvo switch from 850 saloon to new modelVolvo S40, at the end of year he was fourth with 1 victory and 5 podium. In1998, he finally won theBTCC title in aVolvo with 5 victories and 12 podium, beatingAnthony Reid at the final meeting. He also won the1998Super TouringBathurst 1000, sharing aVolvo S40 withJim Richards.In1999 he was again third behind the twoNissan Primera with 4 victories and 7 podium.

After five years with Volvo, he was loaned toFord (Prodrive) for2000 where he finished for the fourth time in seven years third behind his two teammatesAlain Menu andAnthony Reid.

He spent 2001 largely waiting for hisETCCVolvo S60 to be built, but he raced aFerrari 550 Maranello in theFIA GT Championship for theProdrive team. In2002 he raced in theETCC finishing 5th with 8 podiums while in2003, without officialVolvo's support, he finished just 11th with only 2 podiums.

He moved toSEAT's SEAT Sport team in2004 for theETCC drivingSeat Toledo Cupra ending 10th with 1 victory and 1 podium. In 2004 he also took part in two races in theSwedish Touring Car Championship, claiming one victory.

SEAT and Rydell continued in theWorld Touring Car Championship (WTCC) when it replaced the ETCC for 2005. He finished sixth in the championship, winning race two atSilverstone and 4 podium.

He continued with SEAT for 2006, finishing seventh, with just 4 podium.

Rydell lost his SEAT drive for 2007, and instead drove anAston Martin DBR9 with theProdrive team in the GT Championship having previously worked with the team when using Ferrari's in 2004.

Rydell raced in the2007 24 Hours of Le Mans withDavid Brabham andDarren Turner and they won in the GT1 class.

On the WTCC weekend inAnderstorp, Sweden, Rydell returned to the category as a fourth driver for theChevrolet team and a local hero guest driver. He won the second race of the day, ahead of teammatesNicola Larini andAlain Menu ignoring the team order not to attack their teammate, in particular Larini who was fighting for the title championship and losing the opportunity to continue withRML until the end of the season.

Prior to the last event of the2007 WTCC calendar in Macau, Rydell was chosen by the SEAT Sport team to race for them as an additional driver to help the team take home at least one of the main championships, either the Driver's championship via SEAT'sYvan Muller winning, or the Manufacturer's championship. The weekend though did not set off as planned, due to Rickard starting 14th on the race 1 grid and Yvan Muller started 2nd behind the eventual winner of the first raceAlain Menu in theRML runChevrolet. Rickard finished 11th in the first race with Yvan Muller leading 8 of the 9 laps of the race, but due to a fuel pressure problem Muller's race weekend ended on the 8th lap even before he was able to get to the pits. During the second race Rickard had a much better race than the first as he finished in 6th, but unfortunately his efforts were not enough to help SEAT clinch the Manufacturer's crowns, as the championship went to the reigning Manufacturer's championsBMW.

Rydell was re-signed by SEAT as one of their drivers in their five strong driver line up for an assault on the2008 WTCC season. Rickard finished fifth in the final standings, winning once atEstoril and once atOkayama.

Rickard raced for SEAT yet again in 2009, winning at Puebla and finishing seventh overall in the final standings.

Rickard Rydell returns to racing after a year as a commentator of the STCC for Swedish TV. He was signed to Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden team with the Cruze joining as team with his teammate Viktor Hallrup a developmental driver for the team in his second season with the team, with first season being with the Lacetti. Rickard came in as a booster driver for Chevrolet Sweden to gain results for the team as their developmental driver was still not up to speed with the top runners. Rickard won the title* at the last race of the season at Mantorp by just 2 points to Frederik Ekblom.^[4]

• This is under debate for Rydell passing under yellows which are not present till Turn 2, but Volkswagen (VW) TeamBiogas.se brought in former STCC champion Thed Bjork, and he slowed down before Turn 1 letting three cars past before the first yellow flag light. At present VW have appealed and failed 3 times fourth might be soon.^[5]

The two pieces of evidence that Volkswagen Team Biogas.se brought in: Photo and Video,^[6] both illustrated ontouringcartimes.com

This is Rydell Second National Touring car title after the BTCC championship in 1998, although he won the Bathurst 1000 that year also which was his last touring car title before his return to form in 2011.

Next year^[when?] he will be defending his STCC title however, Frederik Ekblom will not be contesting in the STCC as he has signed with Volvo Polestar in the silhouette touring car championship run by the TTA which is based on a Volvo C30 chassis and many teams and successful Swedish drivers, i.e. Jan "Flash" Nilsson and Richard Göransson[1]Archived 16 June 2012 at theWayback Machine, who were STCC BMW drivers in the 2011 season.

Rydell joinedNIKA Racing for the2013 FIA WTCC Race of China to drive theirChevrolet Cruze 1.6T.^[7]

In a 2005 poll run by Motorsport Magazine, Rydell was voted 18th greatest touring car driver of all time.^[8]

Rydell announced his retirement from motorsport in early 2016.^[9]

Rydell raced in the2001 FIA GT Championship for Prodrive, after the team had built a Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello. The aim was to showcase the competitiveness of the car and tempt potential race teams to buy the vehicle from Prodrive. Consequently, there were numerous drivers of the vehicle that season, Rickard being one of them. He drove five races that year, finishing 3rd at the Nurburgring and two overall victories at the A1 Ring and Jarama respectively.

He moved back to touring cars for his full-time programmes from 2002, but competed with Prodrive in the Ferrari again at the2002 24 Hours of Le Mans, sadly retiring. For the2004 24 Hours of Le Mans the Prodrive Ferrari-Rydell combination finished on the GTS-class podium in third, Rickard sharing the car withDarren Turner and rally-driverColin McRae.

After a hiatus of two years, Rickard once again teamed up with Prodrive for the2007 24 Hours of Le Mans, this time in an Aston Martin DBR9. Sharing the car withDarren Turner andDavid Brabham, Rydell won the GT1 class.

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
1990	Team Schuppan Omron Racing	Hurley Haywood Wayne Taylor	Porsche 962C	C1	332	12th	12th
2002	Prodrive	Alain Menu Tomáš Enge	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	GTS	167	DNF	DNF
2004	Prodrive Racing	Darren Turner Colin McRae	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	GTS	329	9th	3rd
2007	Aston Martin Racing	David Brabham Darren Turner	Aston Martin DBR9	GT1	343	5th	1st

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded 1996 onwards in all races) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap) (* signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap – 1 point given)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Laps	Pos.
1997*	Volvo Dealer Racing	Jim Richards	Volvo 850	159	4th
1998*	Volvo S40 Racing	Jim Richards	Volvo S40	161	1st
2003	Triple Eight Race Engineering	Paul Radisich	Ford Falcon BA	161	7th

*Super Touring race

Media related toRickard Rydell at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Rickard Rydell career summary at DriverDB.com

• 1967 births
• Living people
• People from Vallentuna Municipality
• Swedish racing drivers
• Japanese Formula 3000 Championship drivers
• Swedish Formula Three Championship drivers
• British Formula Three Championship drivers
• Japanese Formula 3 Championship drivers
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• FIA GT Championship drivers
• World Touring Car Championship drivers
• British Touring Car Championship drivers
• British Touring Car Championship Champions
• Swedish Touring Car Championship drivers
• TC 2000 Championship drivers
• International Formula 3000 drivers
• British Formula 3000 Championship drivers
• Bathurst 1000 winners
• Supercars Championship drivers
• European Touring Car Championship drivers
• Racing drivers from Stockholm County
• Aston Martin Racing drivers
• TOM'S drivers
• Cupra Racing drivers
• Cyan Racing drivers

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