First win for Fredrik Ekblom

Fredrik Ekblom won the race at Gelleråsen today in a dominating style. The race was a messy one with several incidents and penalties, but Ekblom was happy.
“The car is really good and it is fun to drive again,” said Ekblom. The win was the first in STCC for Ekblom since 2004 and the first for West Coast Racing since 2005.

Second was Honda-driver Tomas Engström who was overjoyed with his first podium finish of the year.
“We have had a messy start of the season. But today everything was right and except for the start everything went fine,” said Engström.

The start was a story of its own. Robin Rudholm, Frank Stippler and previous championship leader Robert Dahlgren was eliminated. Someone at the back of the field started a chain reaction that made cars go off in to the gravel and crashing in to each other.

Dahlgren had his front destroyed, spilling cooling liquid and oil all over the track – making Stippler and Janne “Flash” Nilsson going off. While Stippler retired Nilsson continued and was showing strong form when he was penalised with a drive through for going too hard over cerbs.
“I don’t understand the penalty. I was penalised for recieving two warnings after going over the cerbs too hard in one corner. Ekblom got two warnings as well, but for different corners and did not get penalised,” said Flash. “But I am happy with fifth place, now we know that we have the pace for the rest of the season.

Reigning champion Thed Björk took third place in his Audi A4. Briefly Björk was in the lead after the first lap action. But the Audi-driver was unable to match the pace of Ekblom and Engström.
“I had some stability problems with the car before the pitstop. But I am happy with another podium,” said Björk.

Richard Göransson took fourth after having problems with his car from the first corner incident, Janne “Flash” Nilsson was fifth and Mattias Andersson impressed with solid finish in sixth position with his old Alfa Romeo 156.