Top five now the target for Andreas Bäckman after first points

Andreas Bäckman scored his first points with a ninth-place finish at Anderstorp in his WestCoast Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, shortly followed up with the junior class victory in Race 2, with top fives the next target for the 22-year-old.

After a difficult qualifying session, the TCR UK podium-finisher had two strong runs on race day, powering through to ninth in Race 1, battling with the PWR Racing Cupra of Mikeala Åhlin-Kottulinsky in the closing stages, followed by a similar run in Race 2 to eighth.

“It was a good feeling to score my first points after starting in 15th place,” said Bäckman to TouringCarTimes. “I tried to go for eighth in Race 1 but my move didn’t work out, but it was still a good result, I had good speed and I was catching the guys in front.”

After racing on relatively short circuits so far in Sweden and the UK, Anderstorp was Bäckman’s first taste of a larger track, racing on the 4.025km circuit. The WestCoast driver also was proud of his achievement, with the STCC proving to be more challenging due to the number of experienced drivers on the grid compared to the younger UK series.

“It’s a very different track, and it was also quite tricky as there were still some wet spots on the track so I needed to find the dry lines.

“I have improved a lot this weekend and I’m learning all the time about these Swedish tracks as they are quite different to the ones in the UK.

“There are also much more experienced drivers here than in the UK, and the racing is much closer as there are more drivers around the same pace here. In the UK there’s a much bigger difference between the drivers, while around the top ten here everybody is really good, so I’m very proud of my achievement here, it’s a big step in the right direction.

“Now we have our first points, the next target for me is to get into the top five. It’s a realistic target I think for future races.”