First official STCC test of 2007

The first official test of the Swedish Touring Car Championship season 2007 is completed. Tomas Engström in his JAS-prepared Honda Accord topped the time sheets when the day was over at Knutstorp. The Honda-man lapped the track in south of Sweden with a time of 1:01.295.

“It feels excellent, we got positive feeback from the testing today. Last year it also started good in the pre season tests, but not really in the races. This year we will try again and hope for better results,” Engström said.

15 car were present today represented in five different makes – Audi, BMW, Honda, Mercedes and Volvo. Tommy Kristoffersson of Audi was second fastest in his A4.
“We drove with 2006 spec’ on my car and it felt good, we haven’t started on my new car just yet. I drove as hard as I could and it went well. It is really nice to be in the top, eventhough we can’t really know how hard our opponents are trying,” Kristoffersson said.

Robert Dahlgren in the Volvo S60 was quick in fourth place, just behind champion Thed Björk. The team was reported to run their car on bio-ethanol for the first time. The Volvo-man was pleased with his day.
“As driver you want to set a quick lap as fast as possible and have new tyres on a car setup for qualifying. But we are following a test programme so you cannot say too much about the times. But the car feels fine and it is great fun to be back on track,” Dahlgren said.

WestCoastRacing were present with their two all-new BMW 320si with drivers Robin Rudholm and Fredrik Ekblom. The duo followed each other closely in the times today, only separated by a couple of tenths.
“I am starting to get used to the car. We are testing pretty big stuff to see how things works,” Rudholm said with team mate Ekblom continuing: “There are still some stones we haven’t looked under. We need to improve our qualifying settings among other things. It is great to be back behind the wheel,” said Ekblom.

Flash Engineering duo Janne “Flash” Nilsson and Richard Göransson were seventh and tenths respectively. Göransson had gearbox problems while Flash was pleased and hungry for racing.
“I woke up at 04.50 this morning, urging to go to the track. We have found good settings and it can’t even be compared to last year. It will go very fast all year, I can promise that,” Flash said with a smile.

The STCC-premiere of 2007 is getting closer – Sturup on April 22:nd. A couple of teams were present at the premiere track yesterday for some testing. Engström Motorsport, Flash Engineering and the Mercedes-team laid several kilometers on the twisty track. For a short in car video around Sturup with Richard Göransson – click here.

Knutstorp Pre Season Test