Volkswagen Team Sweden

Johan is yawning, standing on his heels and is in a hurry for a wedding.

"On the way to Canada everything went well with the jetlag, but back home was really hard. We arrived at two o’ clock on Monday and I stayed awake thanks to a couple of tricks. I got my hair cut and watched the latest Johan Falk movie. So far so good, but the following days I was terribly tired. I think of how tough this must be for Sebastian Eriksson who is crossing the Atlantic regularly this season."

Some 'jetlag' about the race as well, a tiring result.

"As for the points it was not good at all. First I broke a front diff on the second practice. The next one broke on the fourth practice and we hadn't brought more than that to Canada. One broken diff in two years before and now two in one day. At that moment I thought there would be no more racing for me, but the team decided to pick parts from Tord's car to help my start. Extremely sad to do like that of course. I really suffer with Tord and can easily understand his feelings. From my point of view, it was an extended pressure. I couldn't afford another broken one, which makes you passive. You somewhat become like a tennis player standing on his heels and in those situation you make wrong decisions.

But everything wasn't disaster during the weekend...

"We had the speed and the starts were great. In that area we were among the best, but still we ended up being in the wrong position at the wrong time. In the first heat I made my own mistake, had a stop, and lost the victory to Timmy. In the second I tangled with Nitiss. The rear left suspension broke. In the third I was first from start to finish but the time was not good enough for the absolute top spots. In the last heat me and Petter crashed into each other and my frame leg was bent leaving the wheels pointing in all directions.  

And in the semifinal you got another knock.

"I was in the last line and got a pretty good start, but I couldn't find a way through. Me and Timur got caught in each other. I got a puncture and his rear was damaged . We went like two wounded crows.

But Canada was a new experience.

"I though the track was fun. A good thing about rallycross is the variation. I think that you don't need traditional rallycross tracks all the time. The cars are adjustable to different types of character. Here we went almost 200 km/h which I enjoy."

At home you planned a test at Westombanan.

"We have some new things we need to try ahead of the coming World Championship tracks. There are changes for many parts and also some updating to do. We learn things all the time, as we did in Canada."

And at home new things are happening as well, little Colin growing and growing.

”You notice the development when you have been away for a while. He’s more than seven kilos now; the graph is straight up. It’s nice to have other important things in life to come home to when racing has been bad. You can shift your focus. By the way, in Canada I bought a Montreal Canadiens shirt for Colin.”

And having been that far away, it’s almost home ground this weekend, Porsche Carrera Cup in Karlskoga.

”I like it there. It would be nice to decide the championship already this weekend. I think Karlskoga based Robin Hansson will be my toughest opponent along with Jocke Mangs who has won there before. After the race me and dad are straight off for a wedding. My cousin Mattias is getting married. We won’t make it for church but I hope the party isn’t over until we get back, ha-ha. In fact, they have moved the wedding because of me competing in Canada but then it was decided I was going to drive the Porsche and we had a collision anyway…”