Published on Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Strong drive by Andreas Bäckman at Gelleråsen Arena

This year's fourth STCC event was held last weekend, August 18^th-20^th, at Gelleråsen Arena in Sweden. After a difficult qualifying for Andreas Bäckman, he got his revenge on the race day and took two podium positions. “Good race day with two podiums, a lot of overtaking and fun to show that the speed is there for the upcoming races”, Andreas Bäckman says.

Last weekend, August 18^th-20^th, it was time for this year's fourth round of the STCC, Kanonloppet, at Gelleråsen Arena and Sweden National Team driver Andreas Bäckman was on the starting line, competing for the Lestrup Racing Team in an Audi RS 3 LMS TCR car. Gelleråsen Arena is a challenging track that was built in 1949 and is located outside Karlskoga in Värmland, Sweden and is Sweden's oldest permanent racing track.

Tough qualifying for Andreas
The weekend began with free practice on Thursday afternoon and on Friday, where the conditions alternated between dry and wet during the sessions. During the timed qualifying on Friday afternoon, the rain held off and it was a dry qualifying. Andreas qualified 5^th in Q1 and 6^th in Q2. The right feeling in the car wasn't quite there during qualifying and he was also blocked on two of his laps in Q1 by another driver. The qualifying result meant 5^th starting position for Race 1 and 6^th starting position for Race 2 on Saturday's race day.

“It was a tough qualifying where I had hoped for better positions, but it still felt good for the three races on Saturday as I felt I had good race speed in the car, so I was looking forward to trying to pick up places during the race”, Andreas Bäckman says.

Good recovery in the three races
In the first race, Andreas made a great start and climbed up to 3^rd place after only two corners. Then the distance became a little too far to be able to challenge the top two, but the speed in the car was good and Andreas was the fastest driver on the track at the end of the race.

In Race 2 he started 6^th but with an overheated clutch at the start he almost had the engine stop completely at the start moment. Despite this, he made a good run from being next to last into the first corner to a final 5^th place at the finish. In the final race, Race 3, the starting order of the top eight drivers from Race 2 was reversed, which meant a 4^thstarting position for Andreas.

The clutch didn't work as well anymore after the race start in Race 2 and both the team and Andreas were worried that he wouldn't get away at the start at all. With that in mind the start was very good, and he was out in 4^th place from the start and five corners later he had worked his way up to 2^nd place. He then started to chase the leader, who had gained a substantial gap, but it wasn't quite enough to catch up, so he had to settle for 2^nd place at the finish.

“I am happy with the results from the race day. A 3^rdplace, a 5^th place and a 2^nd place despite everything that happened shows that I have good race speed and I took the opportunities straight away when I had the opportunity to overtake the cars in front. Many thanks to the Lestrup Racing Team for all the support during the weekend, already looking forward to the next race at Anderstorp”, Andreas Bäckman says.

Next up for Andreas is the fifth round of the STCC championship in three weeks’ time, September 9^th-11^th, at Scandinavian Raceway in Anderstorp, Sweden.

Andreas’ results:
Official Test (Test 1): 7^th place
Free Practice 1 (Test 2): 3^rd place
Free Practice 2 (Test 3): 12^th place
Qualifying (Q1): 5^th place
Qualifying (Q2): 6^th place
Race 1: 3^rdplace
Race 2: 5^th place
Race 3: 2^nd place