WestCoast Racing didn’t finish the Sunday race at Lausitzring. The team was forced to retire from the race on hte outlap after the pit stop with a driveshaft failure. The retirement occured after a strong showing by Fredrik Lestrup who advanced five positions and put the team in contention for points.

Fredrik Lestrup stayed out of trouble in an intensive start before he started to advance and gain positions. He made several passes and was towards the end of his stint in a fight with the DB Motorsport BMW and a Mercedes, both who proceeded to score points in the race. About 30 minutes into the race Fredrik entered the pits and handed over to Martin Öhlin.
”The car worked really well today and I’m happy with my stint and driving today,” Fredrik said. ”I kept out of trouble in the start before I could start to advance. The team really found a good set-up and you could really attack with the car. The teams I fought with went on to score points so it feels really bad to retire from the race today. Martin looked strong in the morning warm-up and would have been able to drive a really good second stint. A bad end to this weekend, we had a chance to score points on one of our weaker tracks.”
Martin Öhlin had a short race, only managing to drive out of the pits before retiring. The driveshaft failed just four corners later and he could do nothing else but to cruise back to the pits and retire.
”It’s not much to say about my short race. It was just short. Fredrik drove a strong first stint and gave us a chance to fight about points. The car felt really good in the warm.up so I looked forward to the race but it wasn’t to be. Despite this I’ve had two fun weekends with WestCoast Racing here in GT Masters and I now go back to the TTA championship in Sweden with new energy,” Martin said.

Result, race 2 Lausitzring

In a race aborted with several yellow flag periods behind the safety car WestCoast Racing finished in 15th position. The race were aborted by full course yellows several times due to accidents.

Martin Öhlin started the stint and managed to get a good start and had several fights for positions during his stint. Bu the also has two periods behind the safety car. Shortly after the the pit stop windown opened 25 minutes into the race a Porsche crashed on the oval track. WestCoast Racing reacted quickly by making the ordinarie pit stop as the pit closes when the safety car is out. Shortly after the pit stop the safety car came out and the rest of the field entered the pits. This meant WestCoast Racing could gain a few places and came out in 12th position, now with Fredrik Lestrup behind the wheel.
”I’m reasonably happy with my stint,” Martin said. ”I had several fights with a Ford GT40 and we changed positions a few times. Unfortunately we had too many laps bheind the safety car both in the beginning of the stint and in the end. Daniel (Rahm, race engineer) took a quick decision to take me in when we suspected the safety car would come out. We gained a position through that but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to finish in the points today.”

Fredrik Lestrup exited the pits in 12th position but started his stint with many laps behind the safety car. With only 15 minutes remaning the race restarted and went green. The finish of the race was messy and Fredrik Lestrup finished the race in 15th position.
”I’m not happy,” Fredrik said. ”I made a bad restart and wasn’t able to fight the cars in front of me and instead I had to defend myself too much. It cost a lot of time and I lost a few positions instead of gaining. I’m dissapointed, it was a difficult stint with a lot of laps behind the safety car but we had an opportunity to score some points after Martins first stint and a good pit stop but instead we lost a few positions.”

The second race starts tomorrow Sunday at 12:30 and Fredrik Lestrup will then take the start and the first stint.

Results, race 1 Lausitzring

WestCoast Racing qualified 14th and 19th respectively at Lausitzring. Martin Öhlin did a 1:45.00 good enough for 14th place in first qualifying, while Fredrik Lestrup did a 1:44.70 which was 19th in the second qualifying.

Martin  was quite pleased after his first qualifying at the technically tricky Lausitzring but was not happy with his position.
”I think I did a pretty good qualifying but it’s hard to be happy with the position,” Martin said. ”I’m actually pretty pleased with my driving, it would have been possible to improve with a few tenths more on the lap but it wouldn’t have made a huge difference in the position. We knew it would be challenging here and we start further back than we would have liked. It looks like we have a good racepace though so it’s not impossible to score some points from 14th tomorrow if we do a good race and fast pit stop.”

Fredrik Lestrup had similar feelings after his qualifying where he drove several fast laps but had to see a few other teams improve compared to the first qualifying.
”It’s difficult to say you are pleased after you have qualified 19th,” Fredrik said. ”I do feel my driving was very good and that I managed to get the speed we had out of the car. But we are too far behind and we will have two challenging races now. Racewise we seem to have quite good pace compared to qualifying so there is still a chance to score points if we do two really good races.”

Results, qualifying 1
Results, qualifying 2

WestCoast Racing expects to face a challenging GT-weekend at Lausitzring just outside Berlin this weekend. The track formed around parts of the oval track and an infield road course with a long straight and several slower corners has proven to be a tough challenge for the BMW’s. Fredrik Lestrup and Martin Öhlins is the driver line-up for WestCoast Racing this weekend again and they expect a tough weekend but has a clear goal.
”It’s not the best track for our car so our main goal is to be ahead of the other BMW-teams,” Fredrik says. ”Just like at Red Bull Ring it’s going to be tough to be competitive here and we will likely see cars in front that isn’t usually there. If we can score some points in the races we have done a very good job. It’s not impossible but our first goal is to be the best BMW. This will be my second weekend driving together with Martin. We worked very well together in Austria and we now have a chance to build on that which will be very important in making this weekend as good as possible. It sure will be interesting!”

Martin Öhlin arrives at Lausitzring for his second weekend in ADAC GT Masters andwith his first podium in the Swedish TTA-championship just behind him. This is another new track for him but he believes there are some chances for a good result.
”I now have a weekend in GT Masters behind me and know more about how it works,” Martin says. ”New tracks is not a problem to learn, instead the challenge here will be to make the car work as good as possible on a track not really suited four our BMW. Fredrik and I worked really good together in our first weekend as team mates and we want the same from the car and this will be important for this weekend. The goal is to be the best placed BMW and try to fight as high up the order as possible. I enjoyed my first GT Masters weekend and look forward to yet another one this weekend!”

Time schedule – ADAC GT Masters, Lausitzring

Friday:
09:00, Free practice 1 hour
11:55, Free practice one hour
16:05, Qualifying 1 + 2, 90 minutes

Saturday
12:30, Race 1 hour

Sunday:
09:10 Warm-up, 15 minutes
12:30 Race 1 hour

Martin Öhlin claimed his first TTA-podium with a measured drive to third place in a chaotic and eventful race at Gelleråsen. The WestCoast Racing-driver has been solid the whole weekend with fast times in all sessions and he didn’t put a foot wrong in the race despite tough racing and tricky conditions with light rain and slick tyres.
”It must be my moustache,” Martin laughed afterwards. ”It’s been good this weekend, I’ve finally come to grips with how to drive these cars and then we get the results. It’s an incredible feelting and I even had to bring out some Nürburgringexperience when it started to rain while we were out there on slicks.”

Martin could consolidate his second place on the grid despite a start he himself was less than impressed with. He then chased down leading Ekblom hard despite two restarts after safety car periods. Towards the end he feel back a bit and got caught by Thed Björk whom he was unable to keep behind.
”My start was a disaster to be honest and it destroyed my plan for the race. Nevertheless I could follow Ekblom closely and felt I was a bit faster than him but not enough to be able to pass. I backed off a bit to save the tyres for an attack towards the end of the race. Instead Thed caught up with me and I was unable to keep him behind me without destroying the tyres completely. At the end of the day it’s a good result and we have started the second half of the season just as strong as we hoped for.”

The other WestCoast Racing drivers were victims in a chaotic start. Andreas Ebbesson got out of the mess with a damaged car and could salvage sixth place. Richard Göransson got hit from just about very angle and finished two laps behind. Fredrik Larsson was forced to retire on the first lap after being a victim in the same start incident as his teammates.
”It was a serious trafic jam there and everyone hit everyone,” Larsson said. ”I managed to stop the car but then I got hit from behind and was pushed into Richard who was pushed into the next car. Usually it ends bad when it starts bad and that was how this weekend was for me. I must fight back at Anderstorp!”

Last race winner Richard Göransson was visibly dissapointed after a tough day from start.
”The first lap was just chaos and I just tried to stay out of it but it was cars everywhere,” Richard said. ”I expected it to be tough but it was even worse than I expected. We had a car to fight for the victory with today even from way down the grid but it was not to be.”

Result, top 10 Anderstorp
1: F. Ekblom
2: T. Björk + 0,803
3: M. Öhlin + 2,184
4: L. Ohlsson + 2,537
5: R. Dahlgren + 10,049
6: A. Ebbesson + 13,348
7: A. Danielsson + 14,108
8: S. Söderberg + 15,865
9: R. Rudholm + 19,340
10: D. Haglöf + 20,317

12: R. Göransson + 2 varv
DNF: Fredrik Larsson