The GT Masters race at Assen was yet another evaluationrace for WestCoast Racing as the team is coming to grips with the BMW Z4 GT3. Richard Göransson and Fredrik Larsson were the drivers this time and they qualified 19th and 22nd in the two qualifying rounds as they were down on grip and top speed. The finished ninth in the first race and was forced to retire from the second race as Richard Göransson were in the middle of start chaos in the last corner of the formation lap. He tried to avoid the cars around him as several cars slowed down causing a chain reaxction but was forced to retire with a broken front and suspension.
”The second race ended all too quickly for us”, Richard said. ”It was chaos on the formationlap when several cars started braking causing a chain reaction through the field. A Mercedes in front of me hit an Audi and I tried to avoid both of them but I touched the Mercedes and had to retired. I just tried to say out of it but to no avail. This was an evaluation weekend for us and we would have needed the second race to gain more data and information. There’s still a lot of work to do with the car.  The first race was pretty ok with a ninth position after having started from 19th position. It shows we have the race pace but we need a lot more, we are lacking top speed for instance. Anyway it was fun to drive, Assen was an awesome circuit to race on.”

Fredrik Larsson qualified 22nd for the first race after struggling with traffic on his qualifying round. He took the start and drove the first stint before handing over to Richard Göransson. He shares Richards impressions of the weekend.
”We are working very hard right now and we are trying everything and we are treating these races as test sessions. Of course we want to score results and it’s a shame we have not been able to do that although ninth place isn’t too bad. We know there is a lot of work still to be done and we need to use these races to continue the development with BMW. You have to remember though that we are putting ourselves up against the toughest possible competition on tracks where this car belongs,” Fredrik said.

WestCoast Racing has a final GT-race planned, the GT Masters season finale at Hockenheim next weekend where Richard Göransson and Fredrik Larsson will team up again.