Stureson inherits win after big crash

Johan Stureson inherited the win of the second Swedish Touring Car Championship race at Knutstorp after Thed Björk was taken out by Robert Dahlgren.
“It was luck, but still simply amazing,” said Stureson after the race to STCC.se.

Björk took the lead from Stureson shortly after the mid point of the race. Dahlgren followed Björk past Stureson in the same maneuver, claiming second.

The both chased each other for a while, having a gap between them that increased and decreased continusly. With one and a half lap left, Dahlgren braked extremely late and went in to the side of Björk.

Dahlgren carried so much speed that he drove straight in to the tyre barrier and had to retire. Björk could continue but dropped from first to 12th.
“The Volvo team tried today, but no matter this incident, I am going to take the title at Mantorp anyway,” said an angry Björk after the race.

The start of the race was equally eventful, eliminating both Richard Göransson and Jan “Flash” Nilsson.

Tommy Rustad went on the inside of Göransson in the first corner. As they exited, Rustad seemed to drift to the left, in to Göransson. This resulted in Rustad being turned around in to Rudholm, who spun.

Göransson and “Flash” went off the track, “Flash” retired on the spot while Göransson could limp in to the pits and retire with a broken suspension.
“I do not know what happened, someone turned Rudholm in to me. I knew that I could have done a good race today, but this just is not my year,” said Göransson.

Rustad was able to rejoin the track and could chase up through the field and crossed the line as eight when the dust settled. Thanks to his team mates efforts on his championship rival Björk, Rustad only lost one point on Björk after this weekend and is currently seven points behind.
“I thought my race and championship was over after the start crash. But nothing is over now,” said Rustad.

The Volvo driver also commented the incident between his team mate and championship rival Björk.
“At first I thought that Dahlgren was a bit hard on Björk. But after having seen the replay, I do not think that. I do not want to comment the subject further,” said Rustad.

After the dust settled from the crash of the penultimate lap, Patrik Olsson had secured second place and his best ever STCC finish.
“We have had a hard trip and we have worked extremely hard. But I did not think that a podium finish would come now,” said Olsson.

Third over the finish line was Honda-man Tomas Engström.
“This was pretty lucky, I must say. I had a good start and after that it was all about keeping the pace up,” said Engström.

Stay tuned for more information on the subject of the incidents in the race!