2013 STCC – Racing Elite League

Transcription

Welcome to the final of the TTA - Racing Elite League, this time back at Gothenburg City Arena. "The small Monaco" where the cars fight it out between the tight barriers. It is time for it all to be decided. Volvo or Saab? Fredrik Ekblom or Linus Ohlsson for the title? There is a small chance for Ohlsson to claim the title. The attention was set on the qualifying session where there was six points to be won. Ekblom needed just one point to secure the title. Three points for pole, two for second and one for third. Those were the conditions for the exciting qualifying session. And things became exciting for Alx Danielsson, too exciting. His car was damaged once again. The session was red-flagged with eight minutes left of the session. There was not much time left as the session was resumed. Linus Ohlsson was really fast, he had to take pole at the same time as Ekblom had to be outside the points in order to keep the title battle alive. And Ohlsson went for it, he did everything he could. Ohlsson secured pole with one minute left, he was pleased and headed for the pits. But with less than one minute left, Ekblom's team mate Björk claimed pole position and TTA 2012 was decided. So damn nice! It is going to be fun to see Ekblom after this, we have worked so hard. My engineer told me that I was third and Ohlsson first. I thought, NO, lets go! How happy do you think Ekblom is? This is going to take a lot of pressure from him. I have been quite intense and put pressure on him. It was enough for me at least. Congratulations Fredrik! Thanks! It has been so close, it has been really tough. I couldn't have had better conditions, but you still think about everything that can go wrong. Punctures, we've seen other cars that have had technical problems. It isn't over until it is done. It is especially hard at this track, to push in qualifying and hit the barriers, not even being able to start the race. Should you go for the top position and the points that we need? I have had an incredible help from Thed, he is amazing to take that pole lap... A really happy Ekblom and he has really got support from Björk. The champion of 2012: Fredrik Ekblom. This was nice! It is just such a good feeling. They have worked so good together all year, then Björk manages to help Ekblom to take the title. Really damn nice! Gothenburg City Race, the small Monaco of Sweden. Lets have a look at the grid. Thed Björk on pole position. It was really fun. I heard that I was third with just a couple of laps left, I lacked six hundredths of a second. I just thought to my self to give it all and the pole lap came. I removed some safety margins at some parts of the track and scrubbed the rear view mirror in the barriers. I have some places where I know I can get some extra time. Linus Ohlsson in second position. I had a really good qualifying session. When I was out on new tyres, I was first for a good while. They told me over the radio with one minute left that you are first, Ekblom is sixth, there is still hope for the championship. I thought, awesome, and I entered the pits and then right in the pit entry, I got the message that Björk beat me with four hundredths of a second with 47 seconds left. That was tough, but I'll have to focus on second in the championship instead. Fredrik Ekblom in third position. It was a good session for me, emotional as I had to take one point to secure the championship. Daniel Haglöf in fourth position. I am pleased. We were fastest before the red flags, we went a bit faster after that. But there was a couple of cars that improved more. Fifth for Jocke Mangs and sixth for Fredrik Larsson. We got a couple of good laps that I am pleased with. We are lacking a couple of tenths, but I am going for victory. Robert Dahlgren in seventh and Richard Göransson in eight. The qualifying session was quite good, I was first, then I dropped to second and I went in for new tyres. But I wasn't able to get the new tyres to work properly. We were fastest in practice but we couldn't quite deliver in qualifying as we hoped for. Robin Rudholm in ninth, Martin Öhlin in tenth, Tommy Rustad in eleventh and Duncan Huisman in 12th. Mattias Andersson in 13th, Stefan Söderberg in 14th, Alx Danielsson in 15th and Viktor Hallrup in 16th. There we have the grid, ready for the race. And we have Alx Danielsson in the barriers! Something has happened. It was all of a sudden. When you are out on the warm up lap, you hit the gas, brake, gas, brake, to warm the tyres. All of a sudden the throttle was jammed and I went in to the wall. It was really sad for the team who have put their sole in to getting the car ready for the second time this weekend, then not being able to start the race. The first light it lit, second, third, fourth, fifth and the field has set off! A good start by Björk, Ekblom tries to get on the inside of Ohlsson, they are side-by-side. Haglöf is right up there, alongside Ekblom and Haglöf gets third through the second corner. Behind them, Larsson is right up there. Ekblom has dropped to fifth after three corners. It was not what I expected, but he got on the wrong side and the corner is tight. Ekblom was a bit catious. Larsson has gone from sixth on the grid to fourth, a great start by him. Mangs drops a lot of positions, he gets tapped on his right front and he loses one of his headlamps. He has to work hard again. Björk has made a tremendous start, as has Ohlsson, with Haglöf in third. Yeah, Björk has opened up a gap and started an impressive pace on the opening laps. Ohlsson has got Haglöf right behind him, he needs to have a look in his rear-view mirror. Not an ideal situation here in Gothenburg. Another driver with a slow start is Richard Göransson, dropping to tenth, having to let past Rustad and some other drivers. The fight is between him and Dahlgren for fifth in the championship. The advantage is currently for Dahlgren. Haglöf, it is so nice to see him there, we know how hard he has fought around this program. Something finally paying off. Rustad attacks Mangs. He is tough and then Göransson tries to dive on the inside on the both of them. He is behind Rustad and Mangs loses another two positions. That is not really the flow that you need to win the race. No, it has been a tough start for Mangs and it seems like he hasn't got the temperature up in his tyres to get the grip that you need. Then you'll be a sitting duck. Mangs has got problems with something. He hasn't got the pace at all, it could be because of the incident he was involved in. Perhaps there is something wrong with the suspension and he can't get the car to turn in properly. Huisman attacks Mangs, the speed just isn't there. And he has to let past Martin Öhlin as well, he drops to 12th. Too bad. Rudholm is in to the pits with technical problems. They are working hard at the rear to see what the problem is. The gearbox got stuck in third gear. Göransson attacks Rustad and helps him to turn around. Rustad drops far down, right ahead of Mattias Andersson in 12th. Göransson is going back up through the field, up in to seventh, started eight but lost down to eleventh. He is on a charge. Göransson is chasing like a wild man up through the field. He is producing super fast lap times right now. He is gaining two to three tenths per lap on Dahlgren. Despite the damaged front on his BMW. He has currently got one problem ahead of him self and he is named Robert Dahlgren. He has closed the gap, he was doing 44.8 on this lap and Dahlgren was lapping 45.3, that is half a second faster in one lap! You can really see it, when Dahlgren has to work his way around the corners, Göransson can... Oh and Göransson goes a bit too hard! He misses his turn-in and he goes straight in to the barriers. He parks his car by the side of the track. It looked like he got a small slide in the second chicane, the car understeered and he hit the barriers ever so slightly at first and then he bounced straight off. It was quite a hard impact. When I passed Rustad, I don't think he saw me. So I damaged my front and something in the front got loose. The water temperature went up all the time, so I had a small leakage most likely. I just felt that the car was sliding more and more. When I came in to the corner, I got a really big slide on the rear end of the car. Most likely due to fluid going on to the rear tyres and then I had no chance of recovering it. The safety car lights are off and all cars are going for it. A good start by Björk, really good, he was awake and gets those important meters. Ohlsson gets a bit wide in second position but he manages to get his Saab to the corner and close the door to his manufacturer colleague Haglöf in third. Fredrik Larsson is really going for it, but I'm not sure what happened, he touched the barriers a bit and lost the pace immediately. Larsson get a bit out of shape, the question is what really happened. It looked like he almost came to a standstill despite not hitting the barriers hard. The question is if it was here where we see the cars now where they steer the cars while braking that he touched the barriers. You only need that small hit and a wheel-angle could be changed and you lose the speed straight away. Duncan Huisman and Rustad are in a close fight where Rustad gets past up in to eighth position. Larsson is far out there in the first corner and that is the reason why the gap was closed. But he closed that gap quickly, stopping Ekblom to get past. And Haglöf goes on the inside on Ohlsson, they are side-by-side. Ohlsson tries to close the gap, but Haglöf snatches second! Ohlsson didn't seem to expect that, Haglöf dove from a far distance and he is up in to second. We can see that he turns in and is almost hitting him, Ohlsson has got to steer away and move over. That was a decisive and really good move by Haglöf. Larsson is standing still after the start/finish straight. Something in the rear suspension has broken. A strut or something has broken, I think I hit a curb too hard. Problems for Mattias Andersson who has got a puncture unfortunately. Last lap, Björk crosses the line in first, the question is who is going to be second and third. Björk has to do something really stupid in order to not win. Haglöf, Ohlsson, Ekblom, there is the trio fighting for second, third and fourth right now. Ohlsson goes over to defend a bit, but there goes Ekblom on the inside of Ohlsson. But Ohlsson is on the alert and closes the door. Good work by Ohlsson. Thed Björk wins the final race of TTA 2012, with Daniel Haglöf in second and Linus Ohlsson in third. Great work Fredrik! Really, really nicely done! This is so damn nice! Wonderful! Thanks a lot, the car was great. I am still emotional by the qualifying session this morning, that I was able to take the title. There was nothing I could to for Björk, he was on another planet today. He drove great, I couldn't match his pace. I was close to the Saab drivers in the end but I didn't want to return a broken car after such a nice season. I had to step back there, but Linus Ohlsson drove really nice and wasn't closing the door. If I am going to be completely honest, I didn't we could finish this good in our first season. We have had a great season, we were here to watch and learn. To see where I was compared to the big names. It has been a wonderful season. Damn, we have fought hard for this! It feels so great to finish on the podium. I thought for a while that I was going to settle for third, but Ohlsson was starting to drop back and I thought that I had to try to pass. It worked and we had a great car today. A good guy, a silly hat. We are done for this year. Linus Ohlsson had another great race today, but first and third in the drivers' championship and first, second in the teams' and manufacturers'. Top score! So damn nice! What a nice end to the season! I am so happy for Linus and we were able to prove that we could almost take them. We have worked hard but we have not got a good final result back from it. That is the case for us this year, from TTA to the German GT championship. It hasn't gone our way. They can rest assured that we are not going to have another year like this. That is one thing that is for sure, we are going to be back in style. They need to brace them selves. We are not going to have those gold hats, we are going to have nicer hats next year.