Photo: Mediaempire.se

“Flash” hails victory as one of his best

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Jan “Flash” Nilsson scored his 34th STCC victory at Mantorp Park yesterday, a victory the 50-year-old hailed as one of his best.
“I thoroughly enjoyed this victory with coming back from last on the grid to fourth, setting fastest lap of both races and being able to pull away in the lead,” said “Flash” to TouringCarTimes.

But the race weekend did not start as good as it ended. “Flash” only managed one lap in qualifying as the throttle cable broke, meaning that he had to start last.
“At that point I felt that I might be better off doing something else. But that quickly passed as I knew we have got the speed to win,” said “Flash”.

The BMW man made his way past 14 cars in the first race to finish fourth, only to be dropped to seventh after the race due to a penalty from contact with Volvo driver Tommy Rustad.
“Tommy might be a bit crossed with me, but I do not see that he has got a reason for that. The rules clearly state that the driver in front has to give way if another driver gets up on the inside. A similar move as Stureson did on Öhlin at Knutstorp, but then without Stureson getting penalized even though that Öhlin spun,” said “Flash”.

The drop to seventh meant that “Flash” got to start second instead of fifth for the second race.
“It gave me a better position for sure, but I felt that I could have won from fifth anyway. We had the strongest car of the field,” said “Flash”.

“Flash” moved up on equal number of victories with the injured reigning champion Richard Göransson.
“This victory was one of my best. But as for equalizing the number of most STCC victories with Richard, it is not the same without him. He needs to get well soon and be back behind the wheel, fighting with us,” said “Flash”.

Next up for STCC and “Flash” is the Gothenburg City Race Arena on the 18th of June.
“The Gothenburg track is a bit tricky to find the speed on. But I feel confident to keep fighting for top positions, we have got an excellent base setting for the car and I am hungry for more,” said “Flash”.