Superior win for Rydell in Knutstorp race one

Rickard Rydell won the first Scandinavian Touring Car Championship weekend at Knutstorp in style, close to five seconds ahead of champioship rival Fredrik Ekblom. The gap in the championship has been reduced to just four points ahead of the final three races of the year.

While the top cars got through the first corner without any problems, the story was otherwise further down. Roger Eriksson made an over-optimistic move in to the first corner, resulting in a multiple car accident.

Tobias Johansson, Jason Watt, Richard Göransson retired on the spot while Eriksson, Patrik Olsson, Jan “Flash” Nilsson and Mattias Andersson were able to continue with damaged cars.

Eriksson was awarded with a drive through penalty for the incident and finished in 12th. Nilsson had to pit for repairs and was able to resume the race to finish 15th, one lap behind.

The racing resumed as the safety car was brought in and Robert Dahlgren started to put hard pressure on Ekblom for second. Despite hard tries, Dahlgren had to settle for third ahead of Michel Nykjær in fourth.

Johan Kristoffersson claimed fifth after a fight with Colin Turkington towards the end of the race. Turkington had the pace on Kristoffersson, but was unable to get past. One of Turkington’s attempts resulted in a chance for Johan Stureson to get past Turkington. The two were side-by-side in to the first corner, but Turkington only just managed to stay ahead.

Kristoffesson was involved in an incident with Tommy Rustad earlier in the race. Rustad went for the inside on Kristoffersson in the “Kvällsposten-corner”, but Kristoffersson blocked the inside, resulting in a half-spin for the both while Stureson could get past Rustad.

Rustad had to defend hard to keep eighth and the reversed grid pole position for race two from WestCoast Racing’s Martin Öhlin.

Öhlin ultimately finished ninth ahead of Viktor Hallrup.