Richard Göransson analyzes title chances

Richard Göransson has emerged as the main candidate for the Swedish Touring Car Championship title this year alongside Robert Dahlgren. But things looked grim for the WestCoast Racing-driver ahead of this season team lost its main sponsor and had to cut back to just one car.
“It is of course never an advantage to be a one car-team, I would very much liked to have a fast team mate in the last races. But on the other hand, we are working very close in the team and have a good feeling,” said Göransson to TouringCarTimes.com.

While some experts said ahead of the season that Göransson would struggle and not be able to be in the thick of the title fight, the triple STCC champion has proved them wrong with racking up points and being the strongest threat against the Volvo team.

Göransson is three points behind Polestar Racing-driver Dahlgren ahead of the race at Karlskoga this weekend.

“Karlskoga is a track that many drivers and team often perform well at. My goal for this weekend is to keep up with Dahlgren,” said Göransson.

One point that Göransson has struggled with is qualifying. Title rival Dahlgren has the best qualifying average, 2nd, of the championship while Göransson has on average qualified on position 4.8.

“My qualifying trend is certainly not good. And it is a bit strange, I have thought a lot about it. I am are often the fastest BMW in the races, but never the fastest in qualifying,” said Göransson.

STCC switched from Michelin to Yokohama in 2009, something that has affected Göransson’s qualifying trend negatively.

“I am not sure if it is that we have not “cracked the code” for the qualifying setup or if I am not able to get the best out of the Yokohama tyres. It all started last year when we changed to Yokohama from Michelin, after that I have struggled in qualifying while I never had any problems before.”

“My personal opinion is that my driving style does not suit the tyres, I drive “too” aggressively in qualifying. And as I’m not pushing as hard in the races, I guess that suits the tyres better and seemingly my race speed is very good,” said Göransson.

Göransson does not expect to be in for the pole position at Karlskoga this weekend. Instead he says that Fredrik Ekblom, who is third in the championship, is the favorite for the pole.

“I would be very much surprised if Ekblom does not take pole this weekend,” said Göransson.

While Ekblom is closest of the other drivers in the field for the championship fight, 37 points behind, Göransson does not think the Volkswagen-driver is going to be able to challenge for the title.

“The only reason for him to be able to get in the fight is if we crash and fail to score. I do not think that Ekblom can catch up to us on pure speed in the races. There are too few races and too few points left,” said Göransson.

The main title contender without a doubt is current championship leader Dahlgren. And Göransson says that his main advantage against him is experience.

“We do not have the fastest car of the field. But our strength is that I have won three STCC titles, Dahlgren has taken a STCC title. I have been in his situation and I know the mental pressure that you have to deal with. The same goes for their team, they have just taken one title while WestCoast Racing is used to be in the title fight and can handle the pressure,” said Göransson.

Three races remain after the race at Karlskoga this weekend: Jyllandsringen, Knutstorp and Mantorp. Göransson says that two out of those three races favor the BMW.

“I would say that Jyllandsringen is most of all a BMW track, Knutstorp as well while Mantorp should favor the Volvo and Volkswagen. But it is going to be tough anyhow. You cannot give away anything for free and you do not get anything for free. STCC is one of the toughest touring car championships in the world and you really have to give everything to be in the absolute top,” said Göransson.

Göransson predicts that the fight for the STCC 2010 title is going all the way to the final race.

“I do not think that anything will be decided until Mantorp. But my focus now is on Karlskoga. I think that I am going to score more or less as many points as Dahlgren this weekend if everything goes as planned. We are within reach of the championship lead and that is where we want to be,” said Göransson.