[STCC] Race 6 - Sturup (SWE), 29 July 2008

[JMeissner]

STCC heads on to Sturup for the second time this year. The title battle is really close. Fredrik Ekblom currently leads by only one point. He is closely followed by Thed Björk who won in the streets of Gothenburg last time out closing the gap. Richard Göransson is currently sat third with 27 points while Robin Rudholm is in 4th place with only a 1 point deficit from third

Driver quotes prior to the race
Fredrik Ekblom - BMW 320si
"It is not my favorite track, but we have had good results here. My goal for this weekend is to maintain my championship lead."

Richard Göransson - BMW 320si
"I want the championship lead back! I have had a lot of bad luck at this track before. But it is going to be a different story this time, I am aiming for a win!"

Robert Dahlgren - Volvo C30
"I crashed in Gothenburg and I have had a lot of pain after that. But now I am back and I am going flat out this weekend at Sturup."

Thed Björk - Honda Accord
"It was really nice to win in Gothenburg. I am ready for Sturup and the car was really great here last time. It is going to be really exciting!"

Schedule - Sunday 29th June
09.00 - Pro Superbike Warmup
09.30 - STCC Test
10.30 - Radical Race
11.00 - Carrera Cup Race
11.30 - Lunch
12.25 - STCC Qualifying
12.50 - STCC Super Pole
13.20 - JTCC Race
14.00 - Pro Superbike Race
15.00 - STCC Race

[JMeissner]

Dahlgren takes pole in ultra close qualifying ahead of Göransson, Björk, Stureson and Andersson - making it five different makes in the top five.

http://www.touringcartimes.com/news.php?id=2451

[Jimmy Magnusson]

That was a really dumb move by Dahlgren. I realise he wanted to avoid the wall, but he could have simply slowed down instead of taking both cars out. Luckily the air fence they left from the motor cycle race seems to have limited the amount of damage on Andersson's car. Poor work by the marshalls too, they could have gotten the cars out of the way quite quickly and we could have finished under green instead.

[JMeissner]

Report and pictures:

http://www.touringcartimes.com/news.php?id=2454

[werner]

I want to watch the race at svt.se, but I can't hear the sound. Does anybody has the same problem, and/or knows how to solve it? The solution is not to watch it on the norwegian tv-website, the race is not on their site yet.

[werner]

I watched it without the sound, since I don't understand Swedisch anyway. I'm a bit confused as what to think of the Dahlgren-Anderson-afair.
Firstly, it is a shame for the both of them to lose a potential great result. A podium-finisch in the championship looks very difficult now for them.
Secondly, I think the crash was Dahlgrens fault mainly, but maybe Anderson should have given a bit more room. He might have thought that he had passed completely, and defended the next corner by driving straight to the apex without opening the door wich you would do when you took the normal racing line. You can see that Andersons nose is pointing towards the inside of the next corner at the moment he is hit. If he was doing that, that would have bin unfair to Dahlgren.
The fact that Dahlgren would have been driving straight into the armco if he avoided Anderson is a bit of a justification for trying to push Anderson a bit to the left. Offcourse he shouldn't, but I think it's not uncommon for racingdrivers to consider the option of releasing the throttle to let a competitor go first as the very last option. If they would have touched, wobbled a bit and then both would have made the next corner, there wouldn't be a great fuss. It was ideed the same way when Goranson overtook Dahlgren in the first corner, and I have not heard anyone about that move yet.
When that was the case than Dahlgren is punisched hard enough,and Anderson a bit to harsch. If offcourse Dahlgren's aim was to put Anderson off deliberately, then that should be punisched harder, but I don't see evidence enough for that.
Still, I think Dahlgren is quite frustrated this season, he really should learn to drive a bit more sensible. This kind of accidents have cost him already a lot of points. He is clearly a very fast driver, maybe the fastest, but it takes more to become a champion in a serie like the STCC.

I wonder though what both drivers have said about the incident, I haven't heard an explanation of them yet.

[PorscheFanNo1]

Originally Posted by werner

I wonder though what both drivers have said about the incident, I haven't heard an explanation of them yet.

Its up on TcT.

In my opinion its totally Dahlgrens fault, at that point he still had like 10 meters to the barriers if not more and he made a way too sharp turn hitting Andersson way way too hard, had he only leanen on him I'm sure they would both have got through the barriers side by side without Andersson changing his line.
A real shame Andersson didnt get any points from this race, he has driven very good all season just like Dahlgen has but havent managed to get much points, hope he can get one or two more podiums this season and the come back next year with an even faster car.

[stedevil]

All I can say is, of the 6 races this year, Dahlgren has been sitting far up the order and crashed into a much quicker car passing him in the last 25% laps of the race 3(!!!) times...

Of the remaining 3 races, 1 he got into an accident in the first corners and in 1 he fought his way to the top 5 from the very back of the grid. Right now it escapes me what he did in the 1 remaining race, but that still leaves us with 3 quite unnecessary, close to the chequered flag, accidents out of max 4 possible.

Though I don't think he is deliberately ramming the cars next to him when they try to pass, I would say there definitely is an instinct behavioural problem that makes him do the wrong thing when passed late in the race. He needs to work on that, or what could possibly be a great international TCC career will never happen. You just have to take the car home across the finish line consistently to have any real chance of winning a championship.

@ Werner: Was it only this races webcast that didnt have sound? They usually have for me, but I didnt look at the latest one on the net ()saw it live on TV). Try again with the following mediaplayer, http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/
If it still doesn't work, the race can be found on various other places on the net, which shall remain link less

[werner]

normally it's fine.