The Daily Life of Johan

18/09/2015 by Morgan Carlsson

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Johan takes a turn, slowly reaches Spain and takes a walk on La Rambla.

”At Solvalla my main problem was just as I thought, the difficulty of finding the right temperature for the tyres. I don’t know whether I suffer more from this problem than others do, but it seems as if my competitors findsthe speed earlier and I really would like to know why.”

But still you scored your first pole position this year.

”Somehow I managed to waver a fast lap in the end. We  had a somewhat different quallifying strategy this time. I went for only one set of tyres, without a pit stop, 24 laps on the same tyres and it was on the last lap I set my best time. That was a real ’try hard’ lap. I noticed there was only 30 seconds left and on the radio I heard from Ronnie I was four hundreds of a second from pole and thought something like ’what the hell’. In the beginning of the lap there was some traffic, so I lost in the first sector, but then I took some risks and hit it well in the end, so I gained everything I needed in the last sector.”

And from the front square you kept the lead all the way to the chequered flag, but far from easily.

”There were many gentlemen asking for a dance but I played ’hard to get’. Having Jocke right behind me already from the start meant I had to drive defensively. It becomes a vicious circle, you don’t find the right temperature for the tyres and need to keep a tight line. At the same time there was no need for panic. I tried to show the others that if they wanted overtake me, they had to do it on the outside. It was probably one of the best races this season, for the audience, but still it’s more of a show than a real race on a track like this.”

And the there was time for some celebration in the capital city.

”Very little. We were really tired and went to bed early, but we paid a visit to the club Ambassadeur with the people from Bauhaus. It’s always nice to go out and grab a bite with the mechanics and the others when things have gone well.”

A couple of days at home and then off from rainy Sweden to sunny Spain.

”30 degrees hot here and the sun is shining. The heat is no real problem to me. It’s always hot in the car, even when it’s cold outside. It just gets a little bit more hot now. But we had some problems getting here, were put on a halt here and there, so we didn’t get to the bus until half past two in the night.”

During Thursday you did some testing.

”We did a roll-out with the newly renovated engine. It was not on a real track, but on a camping site with some gravel and tarmac. The Marklund team was also there and in our team Ole Christian had a go as well.”

Barcelona is not primarily known for rallycross but for football.

”I’m thinking of painting a bowling ball black and white and throw it out here to see if someone voluntarily would like to kick it, ha-ha. No, there will be no football here, even though it would be nice to see a game. But we are heading for the city centre tonight, to take a walk on La Rambla. Hopefully we won’t get lost in some small alley on the way back.”

If you find your way back to the track you will enter a race with many competitors this weekend, as the European Championship drivers are there also.

”40 cars in the line-up. The layout of the track seems a bit more tricky than in France. But the feeling of it all depends on the character of the gravel parts. But the circuit and the surroundings look very nice.”

 

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