Terrible weekend at Ring Knutstorp

A weekend filled with disapointments. There’s no other way to summarize the WestCoast Racings weekend at Ring Knutstorp which is unusual. Richard Göransson had two DNF:s while Martin Öhlin finished ninth and eight respectively after having got stuck behind the Volvo in the first race and the turbopowered Volkswagen in the second race, cars that have a distinct straight line advantage. Team manager Dick Jönsson Wigroth was pretty honest with his feelings about the day.
“It’s a day that simply just doesn’t exist. That’s just how it is and it’s something I’ve already forgotten. It just didn’t go our way from the start of the weekend and that’s how it is.”

Martin Öhlin finished ninth in the first race, just missing out on eight place and pole position for the second race. He got stuck behind Tommy Rustad in the Volvo which struggled in the corners but could pull out a gap on the straight each lap. Martin was unable to pass.
“I feel that you need to be able to pas cleanly and I never had an opportunity for that. I was clearly much quicker and his tyres must have been finished the last few laps but I never had an opportunity to pass him cleanly. Of course I could have pushed him and pass but that would mean one of us would have spun and I didn’t want to pass him that way. Finishing ninth is worthless,” Martin said.

His team mate Richard Göransson had a shorter and worse race. He got hit in a start crash and was forced to retire immediately with broken suspension.
“What can I say, I can’t really get myself invisible. It’s impossible to start way back in the field, it’s a chaos in the middle of the grid. I could see it was getting tight in the first corner and tried to back off when suddenly I just got hit everywhere. We’ll probably start from last position in next race, I can’t say it matters.”

The second race was in a way a replay of the first one. Martin Öhlin finished eight this time, once again stuck behind a slower car with a straight line advantage. He was chasing Fredrik Ekblom in the turbopowered Volkswagen the whole way and Ekblom struggled to find any speed in the corners but could gain large gap on the straight each lap preventing Martin to make the pass.
“I’ve probably gained a lot of new friends this weekend but not much in the way of points,” Martin said afterwards. “I think Tommy Rustad and Fredrik Ekblom both owe me at least a huge dinner each for this. The car was good and I feel I drove well but I got stuck behind the wrong cars in both races. It’s impossible to overtake their Volkswagen without pushing them out of the way. It pretty much summarizes my weekend, a big boring disapointment.”

Richard Göransson ended a terrible race weekend by retiring from the second race as well. This time on the last lap after he had advanced from last to ninth position.
“Retiring on the last lap is the icing on the cake on a really shitty weekend. The race was pretty ok. Even though the car was very difficult to drive after I flatspotted the tyres on the first lap I could show it’s possible to overtake here. I think I drove around five cars on the outside at the hairpin. Not that it matters much even though it would have been nice to see the chequered flag. Retiring with a broken driveshaft on the very last lap is a sign that this was a terrible weekend from the start.”

Result topp 10, race 1 Ring Knutstorp:
1: R. Rydell, Chevrolet 19 laps
2: F. Ekblom, Volkswagen + 4,686
3: R. Dahlgren, Volvo + 5,033
4: M. Nykjaer, Chevrolet + 5,511
5: J. Kristoffersson, Volkswagen + 7,207
6: C. Turkington, BMW + 7,898
7: J. Stureson, BMW + 8,339
8: T. Rustad, Volvo + 10,006
9: M. Öhlin, BMW + 10,226
10: V. Hallrup, Chevrolet + 12,843

DNF:
P. Olsson, R. Göransson, J. Watt, T. Johansson

Result, race 2 Ring Knutstorp topp eight:
1: T. Rustad, Volvo 19 laps
2: C. Turkington, BMW + 3,324
3: J. Kristoffersson, Volkswagen + 10,541
4: R. Dahlgren, Volvo + 12,191
5: Johan Stureson, BMW + 12,602
6: R. Rydell, Chevrolet + 13,274
7: F. Ekblom, Volkswagen + 13,868
8: M. Öhlin, BMW + 14,104

DNF:
R. Göransson, J. Nilsson, J. Watt