Photo:

BMW 1-2 at Gelleråsen

By

Thed Björk won the STCC race of today at Gelleråsen. In front of 16.150 spectators Björk, Göransson and Ekblom crowded the podium. Despite not that many overtakings, there was a long battle all the way to the finish line between Fredrik Ekblom, Richard Göransson and Thed Björk.

Ekblom started from pole position and took the lead from Göransson who squeezed past Björk in to the “Trösen”-corner.

After that Ekblom had his mirrors full of Göransson while Björk lured behind the two. Lap after lap the same scenario was repeated – Ekblom first out on the long straight, took the inside line towards trösen-corner with Göransson breathing down his neck – and each time Göransson had to back down behind Ekblom.

When Göransson made a mistake coming in to the trösen-corner on lap nine Björk was right there and took over second place.

And with only two and a half lap left, Björk managed to do what Göransson didn´t – passing Ekblom.

“I got past Richard when he made a mistake in trösen and then it was my turn,” Thed said.

When Björk got past, Göransson made the most of it and followed him through. But Ekblom wasn´t completely happy with Björk´s driving-style when he and Göransson passed him.

“No, that´s right, but perhaps I had that coming when I drove that defensively,” Ekblom said after the race.

Behind the trio Honda-man Tomas Engström was closing on Ekblom. Tomas had a problem with his car during the qualifying races and found alot more speed when the problem was fixed for the main race. But despite that Engström was not able to get past Ekblom and had to settle for fourth.

Fifth was Rustad with Janne “Flash” Nilsson sixth despite his big crash in the second qualifying heat. But the joy for “Flash” didn´t last for long as he was moved down to tenth place for unfair driving, reason for that was an incident with Johan Stureson who was turned around by “Flash”.

It is a BMW 1-2 in the championship now. Göransson leads with 92 points and his team mate Björk is second on 86. Fredrik Ekblom climbed up to third place on 70 points together with Stureson, also on 70. Engström is fifth, also equal on 68 points with Sanström who scored zero points this weekend.