Thed Björk extends championship lead with Solvalla victory

Thed Björk won the second STCC race at Solvalla from pole position and extends his championship lead with just one race weekend left of the 2014 season.

The Volvo Polestar Racing driver started from pole position and came under hard pressure from Richard Göransson, starting second, on the opening lap. But a couple of laps later and Björk pulled up a lead he was never to lose, winning with over five seconds.

Göransson looked set to secure second place in the race with a small gap to BMW driver Philip Forsman. But Göransson suffered from a gearbox problem with just two laps left, enabling Forsman to get past. The Saab driver almost lost third place as well, with Volvo driver Fredrik Ekblom crossing the line in fourth, just 0.083 seconds behind.

The race was uneventful compared to the first race but still had some incidents. Kia driver Linus Ohlsson was once again involved in incidents, first with BMW driver Fredrik Larsson with the two making contact on the exit of the penultimate corner and Larsson losing ground. A couple of laps later and Ohlsson turned Dacia Dealer Team’s Mattias Andersson around in the fight for fourth position.

Ohlsson was forced to retire after the incident and Andersson almost ended the race for BMW Dealer Team driver Larsson when spinning his car back around. The two made contact, but not enough to damage the cars and both drivers were able to continue. Larsson crossed the line in fourth position and lost vital points to Björk in the championship fight.

Race one winner Andreas Wernersson crossed the line in sixth position ahead of Andersson and Matte Karlsson. Mattias Lindberg and Prince Carl Philip Bernadotte rounded off the top ten.

STCC continues with the season finale at Mantorp Park in two weeks where Björk will arrive with a 31-point lead over Larsson in second place with 75 points left to fight for.