Photo: Polestar Cyan Racing

Richard Göransson wins Skövde Race 2 as McLaughlin gets wiped out

Richard Göransson bounced back from his DNF in Race 1 to win the second race of the day at the Skövde airport circuit from the rear of the field in his Volvo S60, in a race of high attrition, which saw Polestar Cyan Racing guest star Scott McLaughlin eliminated mid-race.

Rasmus Mårthen started the race from pole position in the new Brovallen Design Ford Mondeo, and the 23-year-old held the spot at the start while Johan Kristoffersson bogged down at the start from third on the grid in his PWR Racing SEAT León and was narrowly missed by the field.

Race 1 winner Robert Dahlgren had made little progress at the start, and fell back behind Kristoffersson as he made a mistake at the hairpin and found himself dead last.

The PWR SEAT of Daniel Haglöf was quick in the early stages, driving up to second position past Reuben Kressner’s Flash Engineering-run Saab 9-3, but on lap two he went wide at the hairpin and relinquished vital ground to the chasing pack.

Richard Göransson was now up to third, the best placed of the Volvo S60s, while Scott McLaughlin was up to fifth. The two Volvo drivers carried out a mirror image manoeuvre at the hairpin on lap four, with Göransson passing Kressner’s Saab for second and McLaughlin getting ahead of Linus Ohlsson’s Saab for fourth.

McLaughlin would get ahead of the other Saab on the following lap, while Göransson leapt into the lead on lap six with a pass on Mårthen’s Ford.

Unfortunately McLaughlin’s race came to an abrupt end as Kressner’s Saab locked up into the hairpin and speared straight into the side of the New Zealander’s Volvo, wiping them both out of the race.

Linus Ohlsson was also out after the Saab driver hit Robert Dahlgren’s Volvo in avoidance of the incident ahead, with just five cars now on the lead lap as the safety car was deployed.

When the race resumed, Göransson started to pull away from Mårthen’s Ford, who held a chasing pack of three cars behind him. Dahlgren was last in the order, but picked his way through to third, before being stuck behind Mårthen for the bulk of the race.

Dahlgren eventually passed the Ford on lap 19, with the Dacia of Mattias Andersson and the SEAT of Johan Kristoffersson also making their move ahead on the following lap.

Göransson had now built a near-ten second margin however, and won the race comfortably, with Dahlgren closing to 7.2 seconds by the finish with Andersson third.

Dahlgren leaves Skövde as the championship leader on 68 points, 28 points clear of Göransson with Andersson third on 37, heading to the next round of the championship at Mantorp Park on May 26th.