Fredrik Ekblom fastest in opening Falkenberg test
Kristoffersson Motorsport’s Fredrik Ekblom topped the times in the opening test of the fourth round of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship at Falkenberg.
The Volkswagen Golf GTI driver set a time of 45.209 to end the session a fraction over one-tenth faster than KMS team-mate Fredrik Blomstedt, with Micke Ohlsson third fastest in the Brink Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS.
Johan Kristoffersson finished fourth in the third KMS VW while championship leader Robert Dahlgren languished down in 8th in the PWR SEAT León, as just sixth-tenths covered the top ten.
Despite torrential early morning rain abating prior to the cars leaving pitlane, the track remained partially wet during the opening quarter of an hour. The conditions allowed Nicklas Oscarsson to haul his Kia Cee’d towards the top of the leaderboard, and trouble the leading trio of Eklom, Blomstedt and Kristoffersson.
But as the track dried out, the TeamA Teknik driver fell down the order and finished 15th.
Light rain did reappear in the closing stages of the session, albeit not heavy enough to affect track conditions.
The VWs on the whole continued their domination from the previous two rounds in Solvalla and Alastaro with five cars inside the top ten. The best of the non-KMS run Golf GTIs was Dennis Strandberg in fifth, while his Lestrup Racing team-mate Albin Wärnelöv ended up ninth.
The Audi teams arrived at Falkenberg hopeful of a better showing than at Solvalla, courtesy of a ballast break granted by the TCR governing body. The naturally heavier RS 3 LMS will run with 20kg less weight and finished the opening test with three of their cars in the top ten.
Best-of-the-rest behind Ohlsson was the PWR Junior car of Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinksy in seventh, just seven-hundredths faster than more experienced team-mate Dahlgren, while Finnish driver Joonas Lappalainen was tenth in the Kart in Club entry.
It was a disappointing session for home favourite Marcus Annervi who failed to set a lap-time after being resigned to the pits with an unspecified mechanical issue. The Falkenberg-local, whose Honda Civic TCR will be among the heaviest cars this weekend managed a solitary installation lap before pitting.
The second test of the day begins at 11:40 CET
