Ekblom wins thrilling first Falkenberg race
Fredrik Ekblom claimed the first victory of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship weekend at Falkenberg in a thrilling race. Richard Göransson put hard pressure on Ekblom after a strong charge from sixth on the grid.
Göransson gained a couple of positions in the start and gained two more positions a couple of laps later as Rickard Rydell and Tommy Rustad clashed.
Rustad was on the outside of Rydell in the final corner and the Chevrolet driver left the Volvo driver no room, forcing Rustad on to the grass. Rustad lost a lot of ground and had to visit the pits due to light damage.
Rydell was penalized with one penalty lane round, meaning that Göransson got past and started to hunt down Ekblom. Göransson was clearly faster than Ekblom, but the Volkswagen driver had none of it, drove defensively and managed to stay ahead.
Rydell had to defend from another BMW driver in the form of Colin Turkington. The Flash Engineering driver started eighth and was up to fourth after only a couple of laps, putting hard pressure on Rydell. But just as with Göransson, Turkington was unable to get past the man in front of him and had to settle for fourth.
Patrik Olsson finished fifth ahead of an impressive sixth placed Tobias Johansson in his independent SEAT León. Johan Stureson claimed seventh ahead of Jan “Flash” Nilsson who had to defend hard from privateer driver Andreas Ebbesson to secure pole position for the second race with eighth.
Jens Hellström managed to score the final point in his first race since 2005.
The race saw a number of retirements in the form of James Thompson, who pitted with damage to his car after contact on the first lap. Johan Kristoffersson retired from third as a component in his front left suspension broke after going over the kerbs in the first corner, a similar problem that team mate Olsson suffered from during practice earlier this weekend.
Ekblom now goes into the lead of the Championship with 125 points, with Rydell slipping to second place on 117.
