A challenging season finished for WestCoast Racing with a sixth place as the best result in final race of the TTA season held in Gothenburg. Martin Öhlin finished the race in sixth place. Returning to WestCoast Racing for a one off race Duncan Huisman finished eight while both Richard Göransson and Fredrik Larsson retired from the race.
”In some ways this season ended in typical fashion for us,” team manager Dick Jönsson Wigroth said. ”This just hasn’t been our year, we’ve had the speed but a combination of technical problems, bad luck and mistakes has punished us. We’ve had great drivers and a great team but it just wasn’t meant to be for us this year. Now it’s actually good it’s over so we can put this behind us and start pushing for next year instead. A big congratulation to Fredrik Ekblom for a well deserved championship win after a great season by him.”

Martin Öhlins sixth place put an end to a roller coaster eyar. He spent the first race stuck in traffic but had good speed towards the end of the race. He finished seventh overall in the championship.
”My race was pretty ok and quite fun but nothing special”, he said. ”I could save my tyres in the beginning when I was stuck and had good speed in the end. With a few more laps I probably would have passed Dahlgren for fifth place but it didn’t mean anything for the overall standings anyway. It’s been a mixed season and this was it. At least we finished with the car in one piece.”

Duncan Huisman returned to WestCoast Racing for a one off in TTA and could leave with a points finish. Huisman finished eight after a great start to the race. Brake problems towards the end of the race forced him to lift off. He was happy to return to Sweden and racing in Sweden again.
”A big thanks to Dick, Greger Pettersson and Solution F who worked to make this possible for me. It’s not a secret I enjoy racing here and it was an enjoyable race. I made a really good start but I took it very easy in the first corners as I’m not fighting for anything. After a while my brakes were gone and I had to pump the brakes between the corners to get brake pressure. The whole weekend we have struggled with some small problems with the balance of the car we never quite managed to solve. But I’m pretty pleased with my effort, I came here with no preparations at all facing very tough competition but I could still fight. It was an enjoyable experience.”

Fredrik Larsson fought for a podium position in the race but was forced to retire with a broken rear suspension when he was fourth.
”The right rear suspension broke, maybe after I hit a curb hard earlier in the race. The car felt fine after that but it might have gotten worse during the race. A typical end to this season which really has been up and down for us. We’ve had the speed but have not gotten the results for it and we just have to come back next year instead,” Larsson said.

Richard Göransson was also forced to finish a tough season with a retirement. He retired after he hit the barriers hard.
”When I passed Tommy Rustad something probably broke in the radiator so it leaked and put fluid on the tyres. I got a big slide I was unable to correct and that was that. It’s typical for this season, I will just forget about this and move on,” he summarized.

Fredrik Ekblom won the championship and became the first TTA champion. WestCoast Racing congratulates him to the championship title.

Fredrik Larsson finished fourth overall in the standings with Richard Göransson sixth and Martin Öhlin seventh overall.

Result, TTA top 10 Göteborg Grande Finale:
1: Thed Björk, Volvo 43 laps
2: Daniel Haglöf, SAAB + 2,751
3: Linus Ohlsson, SAAB + 3,079
4: Fredrik Ekblom, Volvo + 3,445
5: Robert Dahlgren, Volvo + 8,908
6: Martin Öhlin, BMW SR + 9,665
7: Tommy Rustad, Volvo + 16,747
8: Duncan Huisman, BMW SR + 23,669
9: Viktor Hallrup, Citroën + 40,995
10: Jocke Mangs, Citroën + 1 lap

Richard Göransson & Fredrik Larsson DNF

No once could challenge Fredrik Larsson on raceday at Anderstorp. The BMW Dealer Team-driver led from start to finish after having started in pole position and he had the race in his hands.
”It was perfect. The race turned out to be a dream scenario for me. The start was good and I could keep the lead going down to turn two which was key. I knew that I could control and get a gap after that and it worked perfect. I was a bit worried about the tyres towards the end but not even that was a problem. I felt safe after qualifying and knew we had a great car today. A great job by everyone at WestCoast Racing,” Fredrik said.

Martin Öhlin held fourth position, where he qualified, for a long time during the race but had to surrender and finish fifth in the final laps. A result he had mixed feelings about.
”I’m happy with the points today and the fact I finished ahead of the drivers I’m fighting in the championship. But I did not drive well today, the tyres were gone very early and I just drove worse and worse after that. The goal was a podium today and I didn’t reach that but nevertheless we scored some good points,” he said.

Richard Göransson’s day at Anderstorp went from bad to worse. Gearbox problems in qualifying meant he was unable to qualify and had to start last. In the race he flew through the field and was up at seventh place after just a few laps and had a pace that looked good for a sensational podium. But then bad luck struck again and his engine lost power and he fell down to a ninth place. Another point for the fastest lap of the race was of little comfort.
”It really doesn’t go our way this year. This was a strange race, from the beginning I felt something was strange with the engine and it gradually got worse and worse. Towards the end I couldn’t even get up to sixth gear on the straight. The car was awesome and despite engine problems I could overtake several cars and a podium finish was possible today. It’s very frustrating when you get hit by things that are out of your control. A point for the fastest lap isn’t of much comfort but I just have to greak down and them come back again for the next race,” Richard said.

Resultat, TTA Anderstorp topp 10:
1: Fredrik Larsson, BMW SR 21 varv
2: Fredrik Ekblom, Volvo + 3,880
3: Thed Björk, Volvo + 6,592
4: Linus Ohlsson, SAAB + 13,865
5: Martin Öhlin, BMW SR + 16,167
6: Alx Danielsson, Citroën + 16,914
7: Robin Rudholm, SAAB + 20,927
8: Tommy Rustad, Volvo + 23,656
9: Richard Göransson, BMW SR + 26,393
10: Robert Dahlgren, Volvo + 27,515

WestCoast Racing didn’t finish the Sunday race at Lausitzring. The team was forced to retire from the race on hte outlap after the pit stop with a driveshaft failure. The retirement occured after a strong showing by Fredrik Lestrup who advanced five positions and put the team in contention for points.

Fredrik Lestrup stayed out of trouble in an intensive start before he started to advance and gain positions. He made several passes and was towards the end of his stint in a fight with the DB Motorsport BMW and a Mercedes, both who proceeded to score points in the race. About 30 minutes into the race Fredrik entered the pits and handed over to Martin Öhlin.
”The car worked really well today and I’m happy with my stint and driving today,” Fredrik said. ”I kept out of trouble in the start before I could start to advance. The team really found a good set-up and you could really attack with the car. The teams I fought with went on to score points so it feels really bad to retire from the race today. Martin looked strong in the morning warm-up and would have been able to drive a really good second stint. A bad end to this weekend, we had a chance to score points on one of our weaker tracks.”
Martin Öhlin had a short race, only managing to drive out of the pits before retiring. The driveshaft failed just four corners later and he could do nothing else but to cruise back to the pits and retire.
”It’s not much to say about my short race. It was just short. Fredrik drove a strong first stint and gave us a chance to fight about points. The car felt really good in the warm.up so I looked forward to the race but it wasn’t to be. Despite this I’ve had two fun weekends with WestCoast Racing here in GT Masters and I now go back to the TTA championship in Sweden with new energy,” Martin said.

Result, race 2 Lausitzring

In a race aborted with several yellow flag periods behind the safety car WestCoast Racing finished in 15th position. The race were aborted by full course yellows several times due to accidents.

Martin Öhlin started the stint and managed to get a good start and had several fights for positions during his stint. Bu the also has two periods behind the safety car. Shortly after the the pit stop windown opened 25 minutes into the race a Porsche crashed on the oval track. WestCoast Racing reacted quickly by making the ordinarie pit stop as the pit closes when the safety car is out. Shortly after the pit stop the safety car came out and the rest of the field entered the pits. This meant WestCoast Racing could gain a few places and came out in 12th position, now with Fredrik Lestrup behind the wheel.
”I’m reasonably happy with my stint,” Martin said. ”I had several fights with a Ford GT40 and we changed positions a few times. Unfortunately we had too many laps bheind the safety car both in the beginning of the stint and in the end. Daniel (Rahm, race engineer) took a quick decision to take me in when we suspected the safety car would come out. We gained a position through that but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to finish in the points today.”

Fredrik Lestrup exited the pits in 12th position but started his stint with many laps behind the safety car. With only 15 minutes remaning the race restarted and went green. The finish of the race was messy and Fredrik Lestrup finished the race in 15th position.
”I’m not happy,” Fredrik said. ”I made a bad restart and wasn’t able to fight the cars in front of me and instead I had to defend myself too much. It cost a lot of time and I lost a few positions instead of gaining. I’m dissapointed, it was a difficult stint with a lot of laps behind the safety car but we had an opportunity to score some points after Martins first stint and a good pit stop but instead we lost a few positions.”

The second race starts tomorrow Sunday at 12:30 and Fredrik Lestrup will then take the start and the first stint.

Results, race 1 Lausitzring

WestCoast Racing qualified 14th and 19th respectively at Lausitzring. Martin Öhlin did a 1:45.00 good enough for 14th place in first qualifying, while Fredrik Lestrup did a 1:44.70 which was 19th in the second qualifying.

Martin  was quite pleased after his first qualifying at the technically tricky Lausitzring but was not happy with his position.
”I think I did a pretty good qualifying but it’s hard to be happy with the position,” Martin said. ”I’m actually pretty pleased with my driving, it would have been possible to improve with a few tenths more on the lap but it wouldn’t have made a huge difference in the position. We knew it would be challenging here and we start further back than we would have liked. It looks like we have a good racepace though so it’s not impossible to score some points from 14th tomorrow if we do a good race and fast pit stop.”

Fredrik Lestrup had similar feelings after his qualifying where he drove several fast laps but had to see a few other teams improve compared to the first qualifying.
”It’s difficult to say you are pleased after you have qualified 19th,” Fredrik said. ”I do feel my driving was very good and that I managed to get the speed we had out of the car. But we are too far behind and we will have two challenging races now. Racewise we seem to have quite good pace compared to qualifying so there is still a chance to score points if we do two really good races.”

Results, qualifying 1
Results, qualifying 2