Double victory for Thed Björk in dramatic second Karlskoga race

Thed Björk took another step towards the STCC title by claiming the second victory of the weekend at Karlskoga.
“It has been an amazing weekend! The team has given me a perfect car and the flow I am in right now is hard to describe. But I am not backing off, I’m going all in for the remaining races,” said Björk.

While Björk was on his own in the lead, there was drama behind. Richard Göransson pushed his way past three Volvo drivers up in to second place in the first part of the race. Fredrik Ekblom took up the fight for second with the BMW driver, with Ekblom going past and pulling away after a mistake from Göransson at mid-point of the race in the final corner.

Ekblom finished second while Göransson had to settle for third and the BMW driver was disappointed.
“Volvo has found something we haven’t. A lot of people ask me what it is that we are lacking and I am the first person wanting to know what it is. But we’ll keep on fighting for the final races, although our chances are slim,” said Göransson.

The first lap saw carnage, spawned by a four-car incident between Alexander Graff, Jocke Mangs, Roar Lindland and Prince Carl Philip Bernadotte. All four cars made it out of the gravel trap, but dragged huge amounts of gravel on to the track.

This resulted in Volvo duo Robert Dahlgren and Linus Ohlsson going off a lap later, when hitting the gravel. Dahlgren was able to rejoin last, fighting back up to sixth, while Ohlsson had to retire. The first lap chaos also saw Bernadotte, Graff and Mangs retiring.

Fredrik Larsson crossed the line in fourth position ahead of Dacia driver Mattias Andersson in fifth. Tomas Engström was seventh ahead of Alx Danielsson, who had to pit to repair a damaged rear window. A mere nine cars finished the race, with the last two being lapped.

STCC continues in two weeks at Tierp Arena.