Last week's Saturday saw 4th round of Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, which has shown us Rickard Rydell's first win in STCC since 2004 in race one, and sensational win of Richard Gorransson in race two. Let's take a look at this round from beginning.




King of qualification was Rickard Rydell on his Chevrolet Cruze. He gained his pole position by setting 47.057sec lap time. James Thompson on Volvo c30 DRIVe was the closest to him: he was just in 0.014 seconds away from Rydell's lap time. Third position was gained by Fredrik Ekblom, who was the pole man of previous round at Mantorp Park.

Thomas Engstrom has shown his skills and potential despite using one of the oldest cars in grid (Honda Accord). He has took fourth place on starting grid. Next to him was Johan Stureson. By the way, he was the only BMW man who gained a position in top ten grid. Other drivers, who are using BMW cars, were failed to gain any positions in top ten. Sixth position got Viktor Hallrup. Seems like it was Victor's best result on this track. Tommy Rustad did not set a complete lap time because of loosing control and hitting a barrier. But even despite this damage he was able to compete in race.
Mattias Andersson was disqualified. However, he reserved 8th position on starting grid. Roger Eriksson and Richard Gorransson were ninth and tenth respectively.

So, the top ten was looking like that:
01 Rickard Rydell - 47.057
02 James Thompson - +0.014
03 Fredrik Ekblom  -+0.176
04 Tomas Engström - +0.271
05 Johan Stureson - +0.312
06 Viktor Hallrup - +0.523
07 Tommy Rustad - No time
08 Mattias Andersson - DNS
09 Roger Eriksson
10 Richard Göransson

Race one gave to Rickard Rydell his first win since 2004. Rickard did amazing 24 laps under the pressure from Fredrik Ekblom. Already at first lap experienced Fredrik Ekblom took out second place from James Thompson, and tried to take first place from Rydell, but Rickard did not give to Fredrik such chance. It sounds a bit boring, but first race did not shown us such a big fight as it was expected. There were no major changes in drivers positions since the start of the race. Maybe, it is worth to note that Richard Goransson finished on eighth position. Reversive start of race two will give him a chance to win. And Richard will use this chance later...

Top Ten of Race One:
01 Rickard Rydell 24 laps
02 Fredrik Ekblom +0.985
03 James Thompson +3.964
04 Tomas Engström +5.046
05 Johan Stureson +5.873
06 Viktor Hallrup +14.220
07 Tommy Rustad +14.727
08 Richard Göransson +15.761
09 Roger Eriksson +16.498
10 Jan Nilsson +16.968

Race two was quite wet. Before the start of the race there was a heavy rain. But even rain could not slow down Richard's BMW. Taking a pole position by reversive start, Richard pushed like a rocket. Yes, cars with rear wheel drive are always losing it's power on wet asphalt, but Tommy Rustad has helped to Richard. You guess how? As Richard was making a gap between him and Tommy, Tommy Rustad tried not to open a door to anybody who was behind him. And he succeeded in it. But gap between Tommy and Richard was increasing. It meant that nobody could disturb Richard on his way to winning race two. Everything is simple. But there was one problem which could reach destination even faster than Richard - Thomas Engstrom. His Honda Accord ran extremely fast on wet asphalt. Who knows, maybe he could overtake Richard, because Thomas could overtake even Tommy Rustad (who, by the way, was overtaken by not only Thomas, but also by Fredrik Ekblom), but Thomas' chances are disappeared when Richard Gorransson passed the finish line.

Top Ten of Race Two:
01 Richard Göransson 24 laps
02 Tomas Engström +0.387
03 Fredrik Ekblom +4.827
04 Tommy Rustad +6.803
05 Rickard Rydell +7.506
06 James Thompson +13.988
07 Patrik Olsson +24.155
08 Jan Nilsson +32.018
09 Roger Eriksson +32.431
10 Colin Turkington +34.702

Current results You can see Here

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Photos of this event will appear as soon as possible.
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I think for every STCC fan, and especially Richard Gorransson's fan this round was more than fantastic. Unbelievable win had to prove to Gorransson that he is still in business. What about others? Roger Eriksson has showed his potential by finishing in top ten in both races. MA:GP/IPS Motorsport team was not so lucky as it used to be in begining. But anyway, their results are quite good for private team. Flash Engineering? Don't know what to say. Actually, it had to happen. But everybody expected such results in the begining, not in a middle of championship. Colin Turkington used to make his best, and suddenly - out of top ten in race one, and only 10th in race two. Maybe it was just a moment of wickness? Who knows...

Well, it's better to look forward to race in Falkenberg. It is a great racetrack, and weather forecast promises that weather has to be shiny and warm.
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