Fredrik Ekblom fights off Rustad for race one victory

Fredrik Ekblom has taken the first win of the year for Team Biogas.se at the first race at Knutstorp, keeping Norwegian driver Tommy Rustad at bay in the final phase of the race.

Ekblom got away well from pole position, but Rickard Rydell’s start was not so good on the rolling start, allowing Tommy Rustad’s Polestar Racing Volvo C30 to sneak through into second place, with the Volvo holding the inside line through Turn 1.

Roger Eriksson had made a great start in the SEAT Dealerteam León TFSI, moving ahead of the rival SEAT of Team Bygma’s Jason Watt, Polestar’s James Thompson and Flash Engineering’s Jan “Flash” Nilsson to move up to ninth place.

The SEAT struggled for pace, falling away from the leading eight cars, and had to fight to hold off Nilsson throughout the remainder of the race, with the STCC veteran given a warning flag for unfair driving during the race.

On lap 12, under pressure from Martin Öhlin’s WestCoast Racing BMW, Mattias Andersson slid wide and went off the circuit, slotting into the gap between Johan Stureson and Roger Eriksson’s SEAT for eighth place, which gives the Alfa Romeo driver pole position for race two.

During the final laps, the key battles were Stureson trying to pass Colin Turkington’s Flash Engineering BMW for sixth, but with no success, and the fight for the lead, as the VW Scirocco lost pace in the closing stages, with Rustad closing up and battling Ekblom for the lead.

Ekblom held on to take the win, less than half a second ahead of the 2009 champion, with Rickard Rydell taking his first podium for the Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden team.

Stureson still holds on to the championship lead with 39 points, but is now just two points clear of Rydell after a consistent string of results from Rydell and the Cruze, with Rustad one point behind.

The second race of the day takes place at 15:35 CET.