Photo: Joakim Åstrom - PWR Racing

Robert Dahlgren disappointed after Race 2 clash wipes out championship edge

Robert Dahlgren had looked set to leave Karlskoga with a 30-point lead in the drivers’ championship after Race 1 with a second-place finish, but his first DNF of the season in Race 2 reduced his lead to just 15 points over new chief rival, Tobias Brink.

The PWR Racing driver had taken pole position comfortably in the rain on Saturday, but fell behind the fast-starting Honda of Mattias Andersson in the dry in Race 1, and didn’t have the pace to challenge the MA:GP driver, doing his best to keep back the Kågered Volkswagen of Andreas Ahlberg.

In Race 2, Dahlgren started sixth and made a good start, but was caught up in the incident between Andersson and the Volkswagen of Tomas Engström, with Engström spun around into Dahlgren’s Cupra TCR, destroying the radiator.

“It all happened in a split second,” said Dahlgren to TouringCarTimes.

“I had a blinding start, and it felt really good, and coming down I was just going to put it into second gear, and then Engström got a tap from someone and then just turned straight in front of me and I didn’t have anywhere to go. If I’d done it 1,000 times again, I wouldn’t have done it any differently.”

Dahlgren’s now just 15 points ahead of Brink, and 18 clear of Wernersson, with the two Brink Audi drivers capitalising in the second race after Dahlgren’s first no-score of the year.

“It’s a bummer, as we had a mega car both in the dry and in the wet the whole weekend,” he added.

“We went the wrong direction in Race 1 and changed that back to what we were running before, and I felt like the car was much better on the warm up lap so I think we would have had a mega race.

“It’s very close in the championship, and it can change very quickly. We can rely on the fact we have really good speed, so I think there we have the best package, but you need to bring home the points as well.”