Photo: STCC

Thed Björk beats Fredrik Larsson to win first Mantorp twilight race

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Thed Björk made the most of his pole position for the first evening race at Mantorp Park and won the race ahead of BMW driver Fredrik Larsson, despite a safety car session.

The safety car session was caused by Kia driver Emelie Liljeström who made a mistake and spun off track in turn two.

Björk immediately pulled up a gap as the safety car went back in while Larsson instead had to defend from Volvo Polestar Racing driver Fredrik Ekblom.

Ekblom made a sluggish start and dropped to fourth position on lap one as Larsson and Dacia Dealer Team’s Mattias Andersson got past.

Ekblom was able to pass Andersson for position three a lap later and then started to gain on Larsson. The Volvo driver was really close to Larsson at the closing stages of the race and both drivers fought hard with several slides and small mistakes.

But Larsson was able to keep ahead to finish second ahead of Ekblom. Andersson was a lonely fourth, seven seconds behind Björk, with Richard Göransson fifth for Team Tidö.

Daniel Haglöf headed PWR Racing team mate Emma Kimiläinen in position six and seven. The best placed Team Kia driver was STCC newcomer Erik Johansson in eighth position.

The second race of the evening starts 21:20 CET.