Richard Göransson wins STCC premiere

Richard Göransson has taken the win in the first race of the Swedish Touring Car Championship. The Flash Engineering driver started from pole position and led the field into the first corner of the Knutstorp track.

Just after the start the safety car had to come out on track, after Tommy Kristoffersen was pushed of the track into the barriers. After the Audi driver had spun back onto the track, Robert Dahlgren hit the Audi A4, but he was able to return to the pits where he retired.

After the safety car had returned to the pits, Richard Göransson was leading the race in front of Thed Björk in the Honda Accord and the two WestCoast Racing drivers, Fredrik Ekblom and Robin Rudholm. Göransson was able to drive away from his pursuers as Thed Björk had trouble to keep up with the race pace of Göransson.

Halfway through the race, when Göransson had already created a gap of a couple of seconds over his pursuers, WestCoast Racing driver Fredrik Ekblom challenged Thed Björk over second place. The reigning champion took the inside line after the Microkrönket and pushed his way passed Björk on the way up the hill to the Hårnålen corner.

A couple of laps later Ekbloms team mate Robin Rudholm tried to pull the same manouvre, but the gap he dove into was to small, and the BMW driver climbed on the back of the Honda Accord. Thed Björk’s car sustained damage to the left rear of his car and had to come into the pit to have his rear tire replaced and the bodywork repaired. He dropped back tenth place and out of the points.

Towards the end of the race Tomas Engström and Mattias Andersson had a hard battle over fourth place, which was won by Engström at the finish. He crossed the finish line two tenths ahead of Andersson. Flash Nilsson took sixth place, ahead of Roger Eriksson in his Seat Léon. Carl Rosenblad took the last available point as he finished in eighth.

Stay tuned for the reactions of the drivers after the race!