Jessica Bäckman delighted to prove herself in Sweden

Jessica Bäckman secured her two best results in Scandinavia on her return, with seventh in Race 1 and third place in Race 2 at Anderstorp, with the Hyundai Motorsport Young Driver Programme racer delighted with her performance.

Bäckman took a strategic eighth in qualifying, earning herself the pole position spot in Race 2, and so had a safe run in Race 1, on briefly applying pressure to Andreas Ahlberg’s Volkswagen in the middle of the race.

In Race 2, she led into Turn 1, but a moment of oversteer allowed Andreas Ahlberg to cut though at Turn 3, putting her offline for Turn 4 where Tobias Brink was also able to get past her in his Audi.

From there, she ran comfortably to third, following up on her podium a week ago at Hockenheim in the European series.

“It was a good race,” said Bäckman to TouringCarTimes.

“I’m happy to be on the podium again, and my first one in Scandinavia. It’s nice to come back to Sweden and show that I can drive better than I did last year. It was very tough last year, and it’s nice to show I’m improving and getting better all the time.”

The Anderstorp appearance was a one-off for the 21-year-old, whose main focus is the TCR Europe series, but isn’t counting out a return later in the season.

“We will see,” she said. “I like to race as much as possible as you can always improve and get better. We will see if we’ll come back, but now I’m going to concentrate on Europe.”