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