WestCoast Racing took their first victory for the season when the Swedish GT-league held its’ second round at Mantorp Park. Fredrik Lestrup and Lars Stugemo fought back from a poor start to win the one hour long race in the final minutes.
”This feels great, its’ our first victory of the season” says team manager Dick Jönsson Wigroth. ”The guys did a good race, the car worked well and this is a nice thing to bring back home from the weekend.”

Lars Stugemo drove the first stint starting in second place after Fredrik Lestrup put the car on the first row in qualifying. Stugemo had a good start initially but got stuck around the outside in the first corner and lost a couple of places. After that he was stuck behind slower cars unable to pass but when the safety car came out he managed to use the situation to take back two places after the restart. He entered the pits in third place for the driver change.
”It was fun but I was too cautious in the start. It was tough losing a couple of places right at the start of the race but it feels good that I could fight back later in the stint. For me this was more like a sprint race, I’m not used to short stints and maybe I took a bit too long getting up to speed. I’m happy I could fight back and take back some of the places I lost. It was really great Fredrik then could take over and do a fantastic job in his stint and pressure the leader into a mistake. It’s great to win!”

Fredrik Lestrup drove the final stint and came back out on the track in third place. He quickly passed Jan Brunstedt in the second placed Audi R8 and started chasing down the leader Daniel Roos in the other Audi R8. Roos had a lead of 12 seconds but with eight minutes remaining Fredrik was on his tail fighting for the lead. Roos then spun off, handing the lead to Lestrup who could finish the race in first place.
”I’m very happy with Stugemo’s effort” Fredrik said afterwards. ”He kept us up there in touch with the leaders and really looked after the tyres. That made ny job su much more easier and I could really go for it trying to chase Roos. I could see he started to make mistakes when I got close and I decided to put him under pressure. He spun around but with the speed we had I believe we could have given him a great fight and win nonetheless. This was a real team effort, we fought back and the strategy and set-up for the race worked perfect and this is a very nice victory together.”

Result, GT-race Swedish Racing League Mantorp Park