WestCoast Racing

The Drivers

Richard Göransson

Richard Göransson is one of the fastest drivers in Sweden, once appointed by F1 Racing as the next Ronnie Peterson from Sweden and the most winning driver in STCC with a historical 4 STCC-titles and an additional ETCC-title. He is known to have an aggressive and popular style of racing always aiming for victory.

Richard is 32 years old and comes from Örebro. Racing was part of growing up in Örebro and he has through hard work and determination established himself at the world elite. The career started when he was 10 years old and were racing i go-carts, followed by succesful seasons in Formula Ford and Formula Renault both in Sweden and UK. During the early years he raced in Sweden but he soon left for Germany and UK to get his first taste of international racing. He became European Formula Ford Champion in 2001

Richard returned to Sweden in 2003 when he struggled to find a budget to continue in single seaters in Europe. He chosed touring cars and the popular STCC in Sweden where he has now established himself as the best driver in the championship with four titles in eight seasons. Richard started his career in STCC with WestCoast Racing and it is with them he has had the most of his success with three of his four championship titles with the team. It was also with WestCoast Racing Richard Göransson claimed the ETCC-title in 2005.

Richard has been a BMW-driver ever since he started touring car racing and he is today one of the highest paid professional drivers in the championship. After three initial seasons with two STCC-titles and one ETCC-title Richard changed teams to the other BMW-team in the championship, Flash Engineering. He stayed there for three seasons, winning a third STCC-title before rejoining WestCoast Racing in 2009.

Once back with WestCoast Racing he immediately fought for the championship again. A tough finish to the season meant he lost out on the title but that was about to be changed for the following year.

2010 became an historical year. WestCoast Racing had to reorganize the racing team after a main sponsor left the team after three succesful years. The team was forced to go back to one car but the car was driven by Richard Göransson. The season became a long fight with the Volvo factory team and in an exciting season finale Richard Göransson could claim the title, his fourth in STCC, with an overtaking manouvre on the penultimate  lap.

The 2010 title success is historical in many ways. This was the first time in the championships history that the title was won by a one-car team. Richards fourth title also meant he is the first driver winning four STCC-titles. During the season he also took the record for most number of race wins in STCC.

Richard is not only the most winning driver in STCC but also the most effective driver in STCC with a win-per-race ratio of 32 % winning 34 races in 109 starts. He’s finished on the podium in 52 % of the races, claiming 52 podiums from 109 starts.

Apart from STCC Richard has also established himself as one of the fastest drivers at the notorious Nordschleife. He has driven several enduranceraces at the fearsome track including several starts in the legendary 24-hour race. He’s always been driving a BMW in these races and stayed loyal to the Munich marque. Richard is especially known to be very fast when the conditions are tricky with rain, fog and during the night and is more often than not the fastest driver on the track in those conditions. This versatility has also shown itself in rallying when Richard started taking an interest for rallying in 2010. During the winter of 2010/2011 he made an ambitious effort on winter rallying in Sweden culminating with driving the Swedish World Championship rally Rally Sweden. He entered the event in the PWRC class and surprised many by finishing second overall in the class.

For 2011 Richard remains with WestCoast Racing. The parties has agreed on a new three-year deal and in 2011 WestCoast Racing are once again a two-car team in STCC. Richard set an obvious goal, to be the first driver with five STCC-titles and be the last one winning a title in the S2000-cars. Unfortunately this ended already at the first round at Jyllandsringen in Denmark. A brake failure caused Ricahrd to crash heavily on the penultimated lap after having dominated the first race of the season and leading with eight seconds. Richard damaged his back in the crash and is expected to be out from racing for three months and thus ending all title hopes for 2011. He is expected to recover and make a full comeback during the season.

34 victories and 57 podiums fron 109 race starts in STCC.

Racing-CV:

1989.-1993: Go-kart

1994: Formula Ford Sweden

1995: Formula Ford Sweden, third in the championship

1996: Formula Ford Sweden, Swedish Champion. 4 victories, 5 podiums

1997: Formula Ford Nordic, Second in the championship

1998: STCC, Ford Mondeo Supertouring, four races

1999: Formula Ford Germany

2000: Formula Ford UK, second in the winter championship

2001: Formula Ford UK, fourth overall. 5 victories, 5 pole, 6 podiums. fourth Formula Ford Festival. European champion

2002: Formula Ford, 2nd Formula Ford Festival. Three races in Formula Renault

2003: STCC. Fifth overall, 5 victories, 6 podiums

2004: STCC, Champion. 9 victories, 13 podiums

2005: STCC, Champion. 2 victories, 6 podiums. European Champion ETCC

2006: STCC. 2nd in championship. 5 victories, 5 podiums

2007: STCC. 3rd in championship. 3 victories, 4 podiums. VLN two class victories. Best in class Nürburgring 24 hours

2008: STCC. Champion. 4 victories, 6 podiums. Third ETC Cup. VLN 24-hours Nürburgring

2009: STCC. 3 victories, fourth overall. Class victory Nürburgring VLN.

2010: STCC. Champion, 3 victories

Richard Göransson

Örebro

Married to Sofia, one daughter Hedda

Born: Augusth 8th 1978

Hobbies: Jetski, exercise, house building and renovation

web: www.richardgoransson.com

Martin Öhlin

It is easy to forget that Martin Öhlin has only just finished the fifth season of his racing career. He has advanced quickly since making his debut in 2006.

Martin began his career in the Swedish Junior Touring Car Championship where he won several races and finished second overall in 2007. This prepared him for the next step which was a big one up to Carrera Cup Scandinavia. Despite the differences between the small, relatively slow front wheel drive cars in the JTCC and the fast, rear wheel drive Porsches, Martin quickly adapted. He finished eighth overall in his debut year, and in 2009 Martin got his real break when he drove for Tony Rickardsson’s Porsche team.

Martin was a championship contender from the beginning of the season and really got involved in the battle for the top when he claimed a double victory at Gelleråsen outside Karlskoga. Here Martin won both races and had the fastest lap of the weekend. After that Martin battled for victories every weekend and finished the season with two victories, four podium finished and two fastest laps. This was not enough to satisfy Martin who together with Richard Göransson drove an endurance race at the classic Nürburgring Nordschleife, winning their class in a BMW 320 diesel.

Martin continued in Carrera Cup in 2010 but changed teams to WestCoast Racing. Once again he fought for the championship and this became his best season in the championship. Martin collected podiums, won races and finished third overall in the championship. This year he also made his first apperance in the 24-hour race at Nürburgring where he on the famous Hordschleife drove a BMW Z4 GT3.  The debut in the 24-hour race was great and he finished fourth overall and third in class sharing the car with Edward Sandström, Marto Hartun and Patrick Söderlund.

As a racing driver, Martin Öhlin has developed quickly and today he works with the legendary driving coach Rob Wilson who has worked with many drivers – among them F1 driver David Coulthard, rally world champion Marcus Grönholm and many-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi to mention but a few.

In 2011 Martin will make the transition to the STCC where he will race on of WestCoast Racing’s two BMW 320 Si’s.

Martin Öhlin

Stockholm

Family: Partner Jenny

Date of birth: 27 January 1982

Hobbies: Motorsports, climbing, cross-country skiing

Website: www.martinohlin.se

Fredrik Lestrup

Fredrik Lestrup started his racing career in 2005 when he won a reality show on Swedish Television called Pole Position where the first price was a funded drive in JTCC, Junior Touring Car Championship, in a MINI Cooper prepared by Picko Troberg Racing.

The team had many technical problems in his rookie year but for 2006 Fredrik changed to the Citroen team instead driving a Citroën C2 in what would be his best season in JTCC. He won several races and was in contention for the title until he was pushed off the track in the penultimated round. After his first two years racing in JTCC Fredrik took the step up to STCC, once rejoining Picko Troberg Racing driving an older BMW 320i E46. Fredrik fought for points in and managed to score points despite driving an older car.

For 2007 he took the decision to leave Sweden to go racing in Germany in the German MINI Challenge Championship. There he has established himself as one of the top drivers in the Championship with many podiums, pole positions and race victory under his belt always in contention for the title. After two seasons with the German BMW-team Schubert Motorsport fielding two MINI Cooper in MINI Challenge Fredrik changed to the smaller MINI-team Caisley International for 2010. Despite the change to a smaller team he remains one of the top drivers and continues with the team for 2011. Fredrik Lestrup has also mixed driving in MINI Challenge with selected rounds in the German Endurance Championship VLN proving himself to be very quick around Nordschleife driving a BMW 320 Diesel E90 for Schubert Motorsport. He has also done tests in the BMW Z4 and been appointed by MINI as test driver on different occasions.

After having been in contact since 2007 Fredrik Lestrup and WestCoast Racing got together for a race in 2010. Fredrik Lestrup shared the teams completely new BMW Z4 GT3 with former Le Mans-winner Stanley Dickens for a round in the Swedish GT-series. They took the win in the cars’ first race and that laid ground for a continued cooperation in 2011.

This season Fredrik Lestrup joins WestCoast Racing as the teams’ race- and development driver in the GT-programme for the BMW Z4 GT3. He will take part in the Swedish GT-series and also drive selected rounds in the the German championship ADAC GT Masters as well as develop the car together with Richard Göransson. He will also act as the WestCoast Racings reservedriver in the STCC-programme. In addition to this he will continue with Caisley International driving his fourth season in MINI Challenge.

Fredrik Lestrup

Stockholm

Family: Single

Born: July 11 1984

Interests: Motorsport, go-kart, music

www.lestrup.nu

 
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