Thed Björk STCC champion 2006
Richard Göransson won the final race of the Swedish Touring Car Championship today at Mantorp infront of 25.600 spectators – but Thed Björk is the champion! Björk finished fourth in the race which was enough for him to stay ahead of Göransson in the championship. Björk took the championship lead in the first race of the season and kept it through the entire season.
“This is an incredible feeling! I’ve led the championship from the season start. We have been stable and made few mistakes during the entire season. Göransson has been incredibly quick, but we managed to take points often which was the key,” Björk said.
What has made you a winner in STCC?
“The right goals and a fantastic back up from the team. Ekblom and Kristoffersson have made a great job stealing points from the other drivers.”
The other winner – of the race today – Richard Göransson takes second place in the championship.
“Five victories of nine possible is my best season ever if you only count the wins. I had a though but hard fight with Rudholm during the race. I am very happy with this result and the finish of this season. Thed Björk is a worthy champion, he made very few mistakes. It wasn’t enough for me this season,” Göransson said.
Göransson had a hard figth before the pitstop with Robin Rudholm. The Flash Engineering-driver took the start of the race from pole position with Dahlgren behind him. After a few laps Rudholm passed Dahlgren and fougth his way right up behind Göransson. During a couple of laps the two drivers switched positions with each other. But Göransson seemed to have the edge and was able to maintain his lead.
Things got worse for Rudholm whose car started to sound very ill, something in the exhaust was broken. His race was finally ruined when the front left tyre was stuck during the pitstop. He fell from second position to seventh, a sad season ending for Rudholm has been close to a victory several times this season.
Behind the leading duo Fredrik Ekblom and Carl Rosenblad fought hard for third position. After the pitstop Rosenblad got out ahead with a good lead. But Ekblom had the pace and gained quickly on the BMW-driver. But that was all in vain since the Audi-team decided to pull Ekblom back and defend Björk who at that point was lying fifth with the two Volvo-drivers right behind him. Ekblom let Björk past and started to drive slowly ahead of Dahlgren and Storckenfeldt.
The strategy worked and Björk was able to get space between him and the other cars. In the end Björk got really close to Tomas Engström who was able to take third position behind Rosenblad. This was the first podium finish for Rosenblad who was very happy with this result but unhappy with the season result.
“It has been a dreadful season, we came here with the goal to win. Kristoffersson Motorsport and Flash Engineering have delivered, but we have not. We have had alot of unluck this season, but I’m making no excuses. You will never win a championship performing like we did this season. But this podium finish was great to be able to give to the team who has fought so hard this season,” Rosenblad said.
With Thed Björk as winner of the championship, Richard Göransson second – third place in the championship went to STCC-new comer Duncan Huisman.
“We are very happy with this. The team have done a great job this season. It is a shame we didn’t take any victories this year. During this race I had some problems after we changed the engine yesterday. We lacked speed on the long straight,” Huisman said.
Would you like to return next year?
“Sure, it is very nice to be here and take part of the STCC. Hopefully I can come back next year, I would like to come back if it was up to me. The standard of STCC is very high, many drivers would perform well in WTCC. I have got this nice and very big trophy for third place in the championship which will be a bit hard to carry home to the NL,” Huisman said with a smile.
