Robert Dahlgren ends Volkswagen run with victory in third Solvalla race
PWR Racing driver Robert Dahlgren picked up his third victory of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship season after producing an astute defensive performance in the third race at Solvalla.
From second on the grid, the PWR man beat pole-sitter Johan Kristoffersson off the line and led through two safety car interventions to take a lights-to-flag win and extend his points advantage.
Kristoffersson finished just six-tenth behind in second, with Fredrik Ekblom collecting his second podium of the day for Kristoffersson Motorsport.
As predicted, Kristoffersson made a poor getaway from the dirtier side of the track from pole, with Dahlgren again getting the jump on the Volkswagen to lead into the first corner.
Albin Wärnelöv’s Lestrup Racing VW stopped on the exit of turn three just before the back-straight, which brought out an early safety car.
Dahlgren was just about able to defend against Kristoffersson into turn one once the safety car came in. The PWR driver learned his lesson from the second race and took the inside line wherever possible to fend off the attentions of the KMS Golf GTI behind.
The pair easily broke clear of Honda Racing Sweden driver Mattias Andersson, who again made a fantastic start in the Honda Civic, and were hardly separated as the SEAT Leon held onto the lead, Dahlgren vigorously closing the door on Kristoffersson on the exit of the final corner.
The train which began to build up behind Andersson enabled Haglöf to atack the back of Blomstedt in front of him whilst also drawing in Joonas Lappalainen’s Audi and Ekblom in the third KMS.
Lappalainen then pulled off an audacious move down the inside of Haglöf for fifth into the final corner, with the pair making contact and the Finn pushing the PWR driver wide.
But almost inevitably, Lappalainen’s endeavours got the better of him as he tried to nudge his way up the inside of Blomstedt exiting turn three. Instead, he sent Blomstedt spinning into the gravel and damaged his own car, bringing out the safety car again.
With Lappalainen out of the race and Blomstedt down the order, Ekblom was elevated to fourth, which soon became third when Andersson ran wide at turn one upon the restart.
Out front, Dahlgren managed to successfully break free from the splitter of Kristoffersson and held a relatively comfortable seven-tenths gap heading into the closing stages.
Kristoffersson edged closer on the final lap but Dahlgren held on to take his third victory of the STCC season, with Ekblom completing the podium.
Further back, Dennis Strandberg led home a train of four cars to take fourth ahead of Haglöf, Andreas Ahlberg and Tobias Brink, while Reuben Kressner forced his way past Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky for the final point in tenth.
With this victory, Dahlgren extends his lead over Kristoffersson in the points standings to 19 points heading into the next round of the championship at Falkenberg in two week’s time.
