Photo: Mediaempire

Emma Kimiläinen: “The only way is up” after tough debut for the new SEAT

By

The PWR Racing SEAT León made its STCC debut at the Skövde airport circuit, driven by Daniel Haglöf, Johan Kristoffersson and Emma Kimiläinen, but the team had a tough weekend all round with the new car. Though Kristoffersson bagged good results on race day, and Kimiläinen was the highest qualifier for the team on Saturday, handling and braking issues were the underlying issue for all of the drivers’ problems this weekend.

Kimiläinen was the first retirement in Race 1 in the new SEAT, explaining a handling issue which saw her put the car in the wall on lap four.

“It’s been a **** weekend, so there’s only one way, up,” said Kimiläinen to TouringCarTimes.

“In the first race the car was understeering a little bit, so I thought if I just turned a little bit earlier into the first corner we’d be OK to stay on the line, but I was just about 2mm too close and we hit the inside wall, then the whole car jumped over and hit the wall on the left side.”

The team were then maxed out trying to repair the car for Race 2. The repairs overran, meaning the Finn was unable to start from her fourth place grid spot, instead joining the field from the back, but it soon became evident there was a new issue with the car.

“The team did a great job to get the car up and running for race two, but we didn’t have time to put it on the scales,” she explained, which caused her to lock up and damage a tyre. “I had a really big flat spot on my front right tyre, and after that the car was shaking so much. I thought I can handle this but it was locking up everywhere.”

Kimiläinen’s race ended on lap five at the first corner after she lost control of the car, with the car needing the most attention before the next round of the championship at Mantorp Park on May 26th.

“It’s good that the next race is three and a half weeks away, so that the team have time to fix it and get new parts”, added Kimiläinen. “I’m just happy that the team did a great job with the car and we were even able to get out in the second race.”