An early exit for WestCoast Racing in the Sunday race in ADAC GT Masters at Zandvoort. Martin Matzke was forced to retire on the third lap after he was hit by a Porsche and pushed into the barriers. He returned to the pits and was forced to retire, obviously very dissapointed.
“It was wrong already from the start as they should not have released the field,” he said afterwards. “Further down the grid there were big gaps and several lanes. I lost some places but could start gaining them back as the car felt very good. On the third lap I was clearly on the inside of the Porsche when he just turned into me, I don’t know what he was thinking. He pushed me into the barrier and back on the track I hit a Camaro which bent the steering arm. This incident was completely unneccessary.”

Fredrik Lestrup had to realise the race ended early without him getting a chance to drive today.
“Of course I’m very dissapointed. The car felt really good in the warm-up and I was looking forward to the race. Unfortunately it looked like a lot of drivers drove too aggressive today. There was nothing Martin could do, he just got pushed off the track and that was the end of our race. We’ll return at Sachsenring, a track I really like,” Fredrik said.

The dissapointing end to the weekend left Dick Jönsson Wigroth a bit puzzled with what he think was unneccssary reckless driving.
“There was nothing Martin could do about this. It looked like too many drove to reckless today. The risks are just to high when you start further back and it almost feels like a lottery whether you will get through it or not. This must improve, now we have a lot of work to do before we can return at Sachsenring.”

Result, race 2 ADAC GT Masters, Zandvoort

WestCoast Racing scored its’ first points for the season in the first GT Masters race of the weekend at Zandvoort today. Fredrik Lestrup and Martin Matzke drove a solid race and could secure a points finish in another exciting GT Masters race. Fredrik drove the first stint and managed to avoid trouble in the first corner in another tight start. He kept a competitive pace throughout the rest of the stint but lost a lot of time behind a slower Porsche in the early stages.
“The start was good but the guys in front slowed down quite a lot which forced me to brake and lose two guys around the outside. It got very tight and I didn’t want to take any risks in the start and instead make sure we got through clean. Unfortunately that dropped me just behind a Porsche who was faster in the wrong places and drove very nervous and defensive. It took me some time to get past him but finally I could push through. Once clear of him I quickly caught the pack fighting over fifth to eight place before it was time for my pit stop,” Fredrik said.

After half the race Fredrik turned over to Martin Matzke who could secure tenth position in this stint and take the first points of the season.
“We whould be happy with scoring points today,” Fredrik continued. “Our season really just start this weekend. We have the pace for the top, we just need to get everything together at the same time. These races are close, the speed down in P20 is just as high as at the top so qualifying is very important. When we get everything together we will give everyone a fight.”

Martin Matzke drove a solid second stint and could secure tenth place. He reentered the track in the middle of a pack and had a close fight for a few laps with the Farnbacher Ferrari before he could open up a gap.
“Fredrik did a good job in the start which gave us the possibility to score points today,” Martin said. I focused on just driving safe and get us to the finish. I managed to increase the gap to the Ferrari but unfortunately the Mercedes in front of us was a little bit too far away for me to catch them. I had a good stint, the balance in the car was good and the tyres felt good throughout the stint.  had to adjust my lines slightly to find more grip but it was never a big issue.”

Martin will now start tomorrows race from row 10 on the grid in position 20.
“It will be a very tough start right in the middle of the field tomorrow. The start today seemed to be quite good so hopefully it will be the same tomorrow. We will try to gain some places tomorrow and maybe be able to fight for points again.”

Provisional resultat, top 10 ADAC GT Masters race 1, Zandvoort:
1: D. Alessi/D.Keilwitz, Chevrolet Corvette 35 laps
2: S. Knap/J. de Boer, BMW Z4 + 0,411
3: R. Renauer/J. Bleekemolen, Porsche 911 GT3 R + 34,841
4: J. Krohn/N. Verdonck, Ford GT GT3 + 35,409
5: D. Lunardi/M. Martin, BMW Alpina B6 + 35,741
6: J. Stuck/F. Stuck, Aston Martin V12 Vantage + 36,054
7: S. Asch/M. Götz, Mercedes Benz AMG SLS + 38,010
8: D. Baumann/H. Proczyk, Mercedes Benz AMG SLS + 41,911
9: F. Stoll/D. Dobitsch, Mercedes Benz AMG SLS, + 45,349
10: F. Lestrup/M. Matzke, BMW Z4 + 53,570

Official results, race 1 Zandvoort

Fredrik Larsson ahead of Richard Göransson. That is the summary of the third and final testday in TTA that ended at Anderstorp Raceway today. Both drivers enjoyed a very good testday and their fastest times in the morning stood up for the rest of the day putting the two of them at the top of the time sheets. Fredrik Larsson had the fastest time overall and was very pleased with his testday.
“A very good testday where we could follow our plan from start to finish and could end up with fastest time as well. We have followed our plan with both qualifying and race simulations and gathered a lot of important information. It’s great to see Richard be equally fast, it gives us plenty of useful information to compare. The car is great fun to drive but also very demanding and it’s really close. This will be a tough and fun season,” Fredrik said.

Richard Göransson was very pleased with his three testdays and the amount of work he and the team has managed to get done. Today he could drive both qualifying and race simulations and his best time was a mere 54 thousands of a second behind the best time of Fredrik Larsson.
“We’ve had three great testdays. The whole team has been focused and determined and the fact we finish these three days by being first and second and with all four cars in top eight is a representative sign of our work. We have achieved what we came here to do and gotten a lot of information out of these three days. I’ve learned a lot about how the new car is to drive and the mechanics have learned a lot about how the car is to work with. The car is hysterically fun to drive and absolutely fantastic when you find the right settings. I’m ready and very eager for the very first TTA-race ever next weekend,” en enthusiastic Richard summarized.

The sisterteam WestCoast Racing also had a good final day. Andreas Ebbesson was sixth overall on the final day and was pleased with his testprogram.
“It’s been a good day I’m very pleased with. We have worked hard today with different kind of tests and we have also had time to do qualifying and race runs. The car is demanding but a lot of fun to drive and you really need to be focused behind the wheel.”

Team mate Martin Öhlin could bounce back from a difficult day yesterday and had a whole day of running today. He set the eight best time.
“It worked much better today and we have gotten a lot of important work done today. We can finally start working with the car now and it’s great fun. I’m really looking forward to the first race weekend.”

This concludes the official TTA testdays. The team will now make the final preparations ahead of the season start at Gelleråsen next weekend.

Anderstorp Raceway test – Day 2 – Top 10

1 Fredrik Larsson BMW SR 1:33.586
2 Richard Göransson BMW SR +0.054
3 Fredrik Ekblom Volvo S60 +0.212
4 Stefan Söderberg Citroën C5 +0.260
5 Robert Dahlgren Volvo S60 +0.292
6 Andreas Ebbesson BMW SR +0.603
7 Linus Ohlsson Saab 9-3 +0.630
8 Martin Öhlin BMW SR +0.684
9 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +0.693
10 Tommy Rustad Volvo S60 +0.726

Complete results, downloadable file

WestCoast Racing qualified on eight place and place 20 in the qualifying for ADAC GT Masters at Zandvoort. Fredrik Lestrup drove the first part of qualifying determining the grid for the first race tomorrow Saturday and qualified on eight place.
“Considering I’ve never driven on this track before and learn something new for every lap I’m quite pleased. We could have driven quicker still but I got some traffic on my fastest lap and had to overtake which cost us some time. My qualifying felt smooth, Daniel (Rahm, race engineer) could time our laps really well and I could get out of the pits with a clear track ahead of me every time. The track is crazy, it’s fast and with very small margins so I think we will have an exciting race tomorrow. We have more time to gain and we are still improving every time we drive the car. The BMW feels good but we will make some adjustments for tomorrow to try and improve it further,” Fredrik said.

Martin Matzke drove the second part of qualifying deciding the grid for Sunday’s race. He qualified on row 10 in position 20.
“I had two good qualifying stints but got a bit of traffic on my fastests laps. We made some improvements on the car but there’s more time to gain. The position is a bit too far back but the car feels good for the race and over longer stints,” Martin said.

The first race starts 12,30 tomorrow Saturday.

Result, Q1

Result, Q2

The second official testday in TTA finished at Anderstorp Raceway yesterday and WestCoast Racing had a focused day with some mixed results. Andreas Ebbesson was the fastest driver in the team with the eight best time overall and he was pleased with his day.
“A good day today, I think we’ve had a good pace and most importantly we have been able to do a lot of different tests.”

Richard Göransson struggled with some technical difficulties now and then but had an overall good day where the team tested a lot of different settings on the car. He had the tenth best time overall.
“A focused day for us where our focus has been to understand the car more. We hade some issues but it didn’t stop us too much. We’ve done some out of the box settings on the car to understand it better and lap times has not been our focus. We know much more about the car now and are ready for the final day on Friday.”

Fredrik Larsson was eleventh overall after some difficulties.
“A good morning where we drove a lot and had a good feeling but the afternoon was worse. I went off in one of the corners and we lost some testtime but it wasn’t too bad.”

Martin Öhlin hade the 14th best time overall after a very diffcult testday.
“We had a lot of problems today and didn’t find the balance in the car which meant I struggled under braking. The mechanics hade to work harder than neccessary for me so I’m sorry about that. They are doing a great job though and I’m not worried, we will find the balance and I will not create so much work for them tomorrow,” Martin said of this Thursday test day.

Friday is the final official testday before the start of the season next weekend. All TTA-teams resumed testing at Anderstorp today Friday.

Result, TTA testdaty2 Anderstorp, top 10:

1 Fredrik Ekblom Volvo S60 1:34.326
2 Robin Rudholm Saab 9-3 +0.390
3 Linus Ohlsson Saab 9-3 +0.531
4 Robbert Dahlgren Volvo S60 +0.653
5 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +0.732
6 Tommy Rustad Volvo S60 +0.846
7 Daniel Haglöf SAAB 9-3 +0.891
8 Andreas Ebbesson BMW SR +0.956
9 Stefan Söderberg Citroën C5 +1.045
10 Richard Göransson BMW SR +1.045

Complete results, downloadable link

Holland and the classica Zandvoort race track is on the agenda this weekend when it’s time for the second round in ADAC GT Masters. This is the first time the championship visits the race track in the sand dunes at the North Sea and for WestCoast Racing it’s a restart after a problemfilled first race weekend at Oschersleben. Fredrik Lestrup looks forward to the weekend and a new track he hasn’t raced at before.
“Zandvoort is a new track for me and the whole team,” he says. The track should suit the BMW well, it’s aerodynamic is very strong which I think will be important here. We had a difficult first raceweekend so it’s all about a restart now. I’m charged and ready and have prepared myself by driving two VLN-races at Nürburgring since the weekend at Oschersleben. Qualifying will be important at this track, especially since the races are so close so that’s a big focus for the weekend. Let’s hope for some good weather and a smooth weekend and it will be a good weekend for us.”

Martin Matzke also visits Zandvoort for the first time and he agrees with Fredrik about the track being suitable for the BMW Z4.
“It’s a new track for me but I’ve seen some in-car footage and it looks very interesting. It seems to be faster than I expected which I think will suit me and our car well, it’s a track that demands a lot of downforce which is a strong area for our car. It we can have a clean trouble-free weekend I think we can be strong here,” Martin says.

As usual Friday starts with practice followed by the two qualifying rounds. The one hour long races with one mandatory pit stop with driver change starts on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Useful links:

ADAC GT Masters website
Time schedule and track information
Live-timing

Four very pleased WestCoast Racing drivers summarized the first official testday with the team’s new BMW Silhouette Replica at Gelleråsen race track. Richard Göransson posted the second fastest time overall in the morning session with a total of 15 out of the 16 TTA-cars running and in the afternoon session Richard posted the fastest time overall and at the end of the day he was the second fastest driver after a trouble free day in the new car.
“I must say the team have done a really impressive work. We haven’t had one single problem with the car and could start getting familiar with it straight away. Everything just worked and it’s really impressive in the very first rest run of a new race car. The car is a lot of fun to drive and now we can start working on finding the balance in the car and tune the set-up,” Richard said.

Martin Öhlin also had a good day and finished with the fifth best time overall with all the four drivers setting competitive times.
“It’s great to finally be back in action again and it’s been pretty much a problemfree day. Everyone in the team has really done a great job and enable us to start working on the car right away. We’ve started to find a base set-up and despite not chasing any times everything feels really good so far,” Martin said.

Just ahead of him was Fredrik Larsson who ended up with the fourth fastest time of the day. This was his very first outing in a TTA-car and it left him with a positive impression.
“I’ve gotten out everything I wanted from the day I’d say. The car is a bit special but a lot of fun to drive. Everything worked today so we could concentrate on getting to know everyhing. It’s been a good testday and it’s been a long time since I saw so many people spectating on a test day which is a lot of fun. Now we head to Anderstorp, a completely different kind of race track so I’m excited to see how the car will work there,” Fredrik said.

Andreas Ebbesson posted the sixth fastest time, a time he already set in one of the early runs and which stood up well during the day. He had some problems with the car in the afternoon limiting his running but still left the test feeling positive about the first day.
“You can’t expect everything to work when it’s all new but I’m still very happy with the first test day. We hade some problems in the afternoon but managed to get a lot of laps in during the morning. It’s a very fun car to drive and I already feel I will feel at home in it. We have started work on set-up and the balance in the car and now we will continue tomorrow.”

All the TTA-teams left Gelleråsen in the evening and headed to Anderstorp Raceway where the official tests will contine today and tomorrow.

Result, TTA testday 1 Gelleråsen top-10:

1 Robin Rudholm Saab 9-3 1:04.108
2 Richard Göransson BMW SR +0.175
3 Linus Ohlsson Saab 9-3 +0.235
4 Fredrik Larsson BMW SR +0.423
5 Martin Öhlin BMW SR +0.845
6 Andreas Ebbesson BMW SR +0.851
7 Fredrik Ekblom Volvo S60 +1.094
8 Stefan Söderberg Citroën C5 +1.172
9 Thed Björk Volvo S60 +1.183
10 Tommy Rustad Volvo S60 +1.502

Complete results, download link

Today the official TTA-tests kicks off and there are three important days waiting for the teams as these are the only test days before the new championship starts. Today the teams are testing at Gelleråsen outside Karlskoga, the venue for the first round just a week later. Thursday and Friday all the teams heads down south to Anderstorp for the final two test days. With these being the only test days in the completely new cars they are exxtremely important and the WestCoast-drivers are focused on getting a lot of mileage out of these days. Quadruple Swedish champion Richard Göransson has prepared himself with a VLN-race at Nürburgring this past weekend and now looks forward to get down to business with the BMW Silouette Replica
“It’s great that it finally starts. These are three very important days, they are the only days we have to get to know the car properly before racing and it’s important we don’t run into any big problems. We will be structured and I’ve prepared myself as much as possible with some racing in Germany to be completely ready for the first test lap,” he says.

He is joined in the BMW Dealer Team WestCoast Racing this season by Fredrik Larsson. The former Indy Lights and Carrera Cup driver has prepared himself with some Porsche testing at Anderstorp to come as prepared as possible for these test days.
“We have a strategy for how to work during these days and get the most out of them. They are extremely important and we must gather as much data as possible. Everything is new to us, the car, the tyres and everything and that is very exciting. It’s a fantastic feeling to experience this and I am coming well prepared for these three test days,” Fredrik Larsson says.

In the other end of the team we find Martin Öhlin who drives a BMW Siloutte Replica for WestCoast Racing together with Andreas Ebbesson. Martin has been waiting a long time to start testing the new car.
“I’ve been driving some Radical to prepare myself and I feel ready. We need to really use all of these testdays and it’s a lot of excitement with so many new things to explore which feels very motivating. It’s nice to finally be able to start,” he says.

His teammate is Andreas Ebbesson who joins WestCoast Racing for this season. The former Radical champion looks forward to get to know the new TTA-car during testing.
“It’s super that we finally are here and can start driving. This season starts later than normal and it has been a long winter waiting for this so I’m very keen on driving now. It’s important to get a lot of time in the new car and quickly get familiar with it during these next three days,” he says.

On Tuesday evening all teams gathered at the Karlskoga airfield to perform system checks and shakedowns with the new cars. Today Wednesday the teams are testing at Gelleråsen race track before heading to Anderstorp Raceway for testing Thursday and Friday.

This is the car WestCoast Racing will use to fightfor the TTA championship in 2012. The new championship for 2012 starts in May and May 2nd will be the first time the car is driven on the track when the official pre-season testing in TTA opens up.
“I’m extremely happy our TTA-challenger is finally ready,” team manager Dick Jönsson Wigroth says. “We are proud BMW has given us the faith to continue our long term cooperation and represent them as the BMW Dealer Team. Together with BMW we have designed this car, it’s a long term project and a brand new concept that has takene us a lot of work to prepare. This is the final piece in the largest racing programme our team has even started with four cars in TTA in addition to our two GT-cars that with race programs both in Sweden and Germany.”

Four time Swedish champion Richard Göransson is one of the teams four drivers in TTA and he is looking forward to the new season with high expectations.
“This new car demands a lot from the driver and there is an incredible amount of work by the team behind this car. Our new TTA-racer will be fighting for the victories this year and I’ve been training hard to be able to be the first TTA-champion. I’m really looking forward to drive the car in just a few days,” he says.

WestCoast Racing will enter four cars in TTA. Richard Göransson and Fredrik Larsson will represent BMW Dealer Team WestCoast Racing with Martin Öhlin and Andreas Ebbesson representing WestCoast Racing. The TTA season starts in Karlskoga May 11th-12th.

Photo: Motorsportbild.de

The start of the racing season proved to be tough for WestCoast Racing. After having finished 14th yesterday, and being as high up as fourth place, the second race of the weekend at Oschersleben did not go as expected. The team was forced to retire with a broken steering after Martin Matzke was hit by the #44 Mercedes, a collision that damaged the right front.

Martin Matzke took the start which for the second time this weekend became a bit chaotic. He started from 20th place from the grid and managed to avoid the chaos in the run down to the tight first left hand corner. He exited the corner in 24th place, a position he held through most of the stint which he described as very diffcult to drive.
“It was a difficult stint. We were low on power and also had a lot of understeer so I struggled a lot. When the Mercedes overtook me I gave him plenty of room and just stayed out of his way but he still hit me. I could continue but the car was too badly damaged. This was a difficult race but we’ll come back,” he said.

Martin could drive his stint and hand over to Fredrik Lestrup but three laps after the driver change the steering proved to be too damaged to continue and Fredrik was forced to retire from the race in the pits.
“There’s not much to say really. It felt good when I drove out and the pace the first laps after the stop was pretty ok but three laps later it was impossible to steer right and that was that. It’s obviously not what we hoped for but this has been a tough weekend from the start. We will come back at the next race instead,” Fredrik said.

Teammanager Dick Jönsson Wigroth stated the obvious after the race, the first race weekend of the year in ADAC GT Masters just never went as the team expected it. Now WestCoast Racing has five weeks to prepare for the second round in the championship.
“This was just not simply our weekend. We fought against the odds from the start and our hope quickly changed to just be able to drive through the two races and gain experience. The race yesterday went pretty ok given the circumstances but today it unfortunately didn’t go our way at all. There was nothing Martin could do to avoid the accident, he just kept out of trouble but sometimes things like this happens. We know both the team and the car has the pace, we just need things to go our way a little bit more. We look forward to have five weeks to prepare for the race weekend at Zandvoort,” he summarizes.

The next race weekend in ADAC GT Masters takes place at Zandvoort in Holland May 4th – 6th.

Raceresults, race 2 ADAC GT Masters Oschersleben