Robert Dahlgren takes lights-to-flag win at Ljungbyhed

Robert Dahlgren has won the opening round of the 2022 TCR Scandinavia season at the Ljungbyhed circuit in Sweden, leading from pole position in his PWR Racing Team CUPRA Leon. The reigning champion finished ahead of a phalanx of four all-new Audi RS 3 LMS cars.

Dahlgren had claimed pole position in the experimental one-lap shootout qualifying session on Saturday morning, qualifying ahead of the Lestrup Racing Team Audi of Oliver Söderström, with Tobias Brink qualifying third in his new Audi.

At the race start, Brink got ahead of Söderström to move up to second, while at the back of the pack there was an incident between Christian Skaar’s first generation Audi and the Volkswagen Golf of Marius Solberg Hansen, which caused the safety car to be deployed.

At the restart on lap six, the top four cars began to break away from the pack, with Dahlgren leading Brink, Söderström and Brink’s new teammate Hugo Nerman.

Isac Aronsson was running in fifth before the restart, but he ran wide at the last corner at the restart, and dropped behind the PWR Racing Team CUPRA of Axel Bengtsson, which had less pace than the leading quartet.

Bengtsson held on despite constant pressure from Aronsson, who was also under attack from Andreas Bäckman’s Lestrup Racing Team Audi.

On lap 12, an impatient Aronsson dived down the inside of Bengtsson’s CUPRA at Turn 1, but completely overshot the corner and dropped to tenth, eventually finishing ninth. This allowed Bäckman through to fifth, who quickly began to pull away from Bengtsson.

Up front, the top four battle was mostly processional, with Dahlgren crossing the line two seconds clear of Brink to win the race and start a perfect defence of his 2021 title, with Söderström completing the podium.

The next round of TCR Scandinavia takes place at Skellefteå on June 17/18.

Ljungbyhed – Race
1. Robert Dahlgren (PWR Racing, CUPRA Leon Competitión), 18 laps
2. Tobias Brink (Brink Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS II), 1.937
3. Oliver Söderström (Lestrup Racing Team, Audi RS 3 LMS II), 2.443

Championship points
1. R. Dahlgren 25 pts; 2. T. Brink 20; 3. O. Söderström 19

Picture: TCR Scandinavia