Photo: STCC Media

Michel Nykjaer closes in with win at Knutstorp

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Michel Nykjaer won the first race at Knutstorp, after contact at Turn 1 with Johan Kristoffersson who dropped to fourth. With Rydell holding on to third, the two Chevrolet drivers are now five and seven points behind in the standings.

At the rolling start, Johan Kristoffersson appeared to make a great start from second on the outside of Nykjaer, getting his Volkswagen Scirocco part of the way ahead heading into the corner, but the two touched which pushed Kristoffersson into a slide and he dropped behind IPS Team Biogas driver Patrik Olsson and Championship rival Rydell into fourth.

Nykjaer then held the lead and went on to build up to a 3.5 second gap, whilst Patrik Olsson had to defend hard from Rydell for the whole race, but Rydell couldn’t find a way past the Volkswagen. Rydell tried one final lunge on the final lap into Turn 1, but thought better of it and backed out before the two made contact, and settled for third.

“I would rather have finished second than third, but Olsson made no mistakes and his car is better in a straight line. If I had tried to pass, it wouldn’t have been without contact,” said Rydell.

Tomas Engström started from last in the Honda Civic which had just finished its engine installation before the race, having missed Free Practice, Qualifying and the Warm-up. The Swede managed to get all the way up to seventh place before having to stop on Lap 14 with the temperature running too high on the car.

Nykjaer’s win closes him up in the drivers’ standings to seven points behind Johan Kristoffersson, and just two behind his Chevrolet team-mate.

“It might have looked easy, but Kristoffersson tried to pass me at the start and if he would have given me half a metre more we could have gone through without contact,” said Nykjaer after the race.”

In the Semcon Cup, Niclas Olsson’s 11th class win of the season means it’s almost certain that the NP Racing driver will wrap-up the title in the next race at 15:15 CET today.

For race two, Rydell starts on pole with Kristoffersson alongsideand Nykjaer third.