Johan Kristoffersson takes win as Rydell & Engström clash

Johan Kristoffersson took his third win of the season for Team Biogas.se as Rickard Rydell and Tomas Engström had a coming together on the 11th lap of the race whilst battling for the lead.

Rickard Rydell started from pole position in the Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Cruze with Championship rival Johan Kristoffersson alongside, but at the start Tomas Engström in the Honda Racing Sweden Civic leapt up into second place between the two points leaders.

The safety car was out on the first lap after Niclas Olsson went out in the NP Racing SEAT León, which meant the 21-year-old was unable to defend his season long winning streak in the Semcon Cup for privateers.

At the restart, everyone held station for the middle portion of the race, with Santosh Berggren retiring in the SEAT Team Sweden León on lap ten. As Berggren’s team-mate Robin Appelqvist was unable to make the start, this had seen just 13 cars take the green flag.

All the action was reserved for late in the race, when Engström clashed with Rydell for the lead on lap 11. In the fracas, Kristoffersson snuck through to take the lead with a safety margin of two seconds. Rydell was able to continue on to finish in second, whilst Engström dropped to fifth, but was able to pass Patrik Olsson’s VW and Michel Nykjaer’s Chevrolet to reclaim third spt by the end of the race.

Andreas Ahlberg finished in eighth place and took his first win of the season in the Semcon Cup for privateers, with brother/team-mate Joakim in ninth place in the other BMS Event Audi A4. André Andersson finished in tenth and last place after Berggren, Niclas Olsson and Tony Johansson’s retirements and Robin Appelqvist’s DNS.

Kristoffersson now stretches his lead in the Championship over Rydell to 12 points.

Race two takes place at 15:15 CET, with Michel Nykjaer starting on pole ahead of Rydell, with Kristoffersson set to start from third on the grid.