Richard Göransson followed up his Ring Knutstorp achievement by taking to the STCC podium once again in Gothenburg on Saturday, coming home second behind the wheel of his Team Tidö SAAB 9-3 at the challenging street venue.
Göransson got his weekend literally underway with a bang, after a misunderstanding with a rival threw him into the unforgiving Armco barriers in Friday free practice and saw the quadruple champion lose valuable track time. Despite the mishap, however, Göransson fought back emphatically in the subsequent qualifying session, ending up third to bag 15 important championship points.
In the first race of the weekend, Göransson took the chequered flag in eighth following a drive-through penalty in the wake of a clash with reigning STCC champion Thed Björk. As it was, Roger Samuelsson instead led the Team Tidö charge with a career-best result of sixth.
Göransson would enjoy a much better run in Saturday’s concluding Race 2, in which he held on to second behind Björk throughout to record Team Tidö’s best-ever STCC finish.
Göransson leaves Gothenburg sitting fourth overall in the championship standings, where he has now reduced the points’ gap to leader Fredrik Larsson. Team Tidö maintains third in the teams’ standings.
Round three of the 2014 STCC campaign takes place at Falkenberg on July 11-12. In the build-up to the event, Richard Göransson will race in the legendary Nürburgring 24 hours endurance on June 20-22.
RICHARD GÖRANSSON: ”Another strong weekend for us. We’ve taken a further step towards the team’s maiden victory, and have got every reason to be pleased. Thed was simply too quick today, so congrats to him. We lost valuable set-up time due to my crash in practice, and I think that put us slightly on the back foot, meaning we didn’t quite have the tyre management in place for the races. There are still aspects of our performance to work on, but we’ve slashed some of the points’ deficit in the standings – which was our clear aim for this weekend – and the team has done a very good job here in Gothenburg.”
DAVID VON SCHINKEL (Team Principal): ”A fantastic effort by the entire team – I’m so proud. Primarily, I think the job done following Richard’s free practice incident was extraordinary; the car was badly damaged, qualifying was right around the corner, and we still managed to get a P3 grid slot and score 15 very important points. Second place in the final race marks our best-ever STCC result, and we’re now just 18 points adrift in the standings. Last, but certainly not least, you have to be impressed by what Roger did this weekend. Finishing sixth in this field is no mean feat, and gives us further momentum in the teams’ championship. It’s highly stimulating to be fighting at the front of the pack, and that’s something we’ll continue to do over the remainder of the season.”
