Drama at Mantorp (updated)

Reigning champion Richard Göransson won his first victory of the year at Mantorp today. He headed a BMW 1-2-3 with Robin Rudholm taking second and Duncan Huisman third. The race was thrilling with many incidents. Only eight cars managed to cross the finish line.

The action started in the first corner. Göransson took the start ahead of the two West Coast Racing BMW’s. Behind them chaos started. Volvo-driver Alexander Storckenfeldt went wide and out on the grass, as he came back to the track he seemed to start a chain reaction.

Storckenfelt looked to hit Karlsson who then hit Dahlgren who hit Engström. Both Volvo-drivers had to retire moments, Karlsson could continue but far behind with a damaged car while Engström had to retire on the spot.

“I just felt a bang from behind and I spun. Dreadful. But I will be back at the next race with zero penalty weight and a fresh engine, the others should watch out,” Engström said only a few moments after his crash.

The drama of this race was far from over. Edward Sandström rolled his BMW on the first lap quite hard. The BMW-driver got a nudge from behind and spun off the track in a fast corner. As he hit the barrier, the car rolled. Fortiunately he was ok after a check with the doctors while his car was damaged badly.

Another victim of the first lap chaos was championship leader Thed Björk. He was hit from behind which damaged his exhaust. He lost almost four seconds per laps due to this and was forced to pit to fix the problem

Mean while the three BMW’s started to pull away in the top. Göransson was a bit quicker than the two West Coast Racing BMW’s of Huisman and Rudholm. Huisman was at first close to Göransson, but he over heated his tyres while tyring to get really close.

“I knew my only chance was in the beginning of the race. I couldn’t get past and my tyres suffered from it,” Huisman said.

Göransson was the first of the top trio to pit. The team pulled of an excellent pitstop, quickest of all teams, securing his lead. Rudholm stayed out a bit longer, but sadly his team had problems. The right front tyre took alot of time to get on and he lost about seven seconds on Göransson.

“Not again!, was my first thought. I was so focused on the race, I just wanted to get back out,” Rudholm said.

As the race started to come to an end, only nine cars were out on the track. Many battered cars were left around the track. With two laps left Göransson was ahead with Huisman in second, Rudholm in third, Ekblom fourth and Kristoffersson fifth.

Rudholm gained steadily on Huisman and managed to pass him on the last lap. Team orders?

“Well, you know what happened. I could have given Rudholm a hard time, but there is no point trying to block your team mate,” Huisman said.

Göransson roared on to take a dominating first victory of the year.

“A really good one! There has been so many new things as I got to this team. But I could relax before this race and just focus on my job. It was a tough race, especially the start with Huisman so close. The team made a awesome job in the pits, and I’m just so happy,” Göransson said after the race.

Rudholm fought hard back to second place, Huisman took a stable third place.

“I’m very happy, for the whole team with Duncan in third place. We had trouble in the pits which costed me alot of time. We have to practice alot more there. But second place is very nice and we got some good points,” Rudholm said after the race.

Behind the two Audi-drivers of Ekblom and Kristoffersson young new-comer David Björk notched up another points finish in sixth position.