Linus Ohlsson wins eventful first Mantorp Park race

Linus Ohlsson claimed his second STCC victory of the season in the first race of the season finale at Mantorp Park. While the Volvo driver took command early in the race, the fights behind were many and eventful.
“It was an awesome race. I got a gap on the first lap that I was able to maintain. A perfect car and a perfect race,” said Ohlsson.

Robert Dahlgren took second place on the first lap but quickly found him self in a fight with Volvo colleague Fredrik Ekblom. The two made contact in corner five, resulting in a damaged rear-end for Dahlgren and Ekblom got past to second place two corners later.

This spawned a new fight for third position between Dahlgren, Citroën driver Jocke Mangs and newly crowned champion Thed Björk. After Dahlgren had been passed by Ekblom, Björk threw his car on the inside of Mangs. The two went side-by-side for several corners, with Mangs coming out ahead in the end.

Dahlgren dropped back to fifth position and left the fight for third between Mangs and Björk to the very last lap. The duo were side-by-side in to the final corner, with Mangs going sideways, but ultimately managing to stay in third and claimed his and Brovallen Design’s first podium finish of the year.
“I am over the moon. I just wished that we had this speed in the first part of the season. But I am very happy for this result and for all the hard-working guys in the team,” said Mangs.

Tomas Engström claimed his best position of the year in sixth position ahead of Robin Rudholm, Mattias Andersson and STCC newcomer Andreas Wernersson.

Richard Göransson had a disaster race and retired early on with technical problems. This enabled his main rivals for second position in the championship to get closer. Ekblom climbed to third in the championship, 19 points behind Göransson, with Dahlgren fourth 20 points behind and Ohlsson fifth, 25 points behind.