Volkswagen Team Sweden

Johan is on high revolution, lacks gorilla style and wants to keep his succession.

”The first practice laps in France were a bit wobbly and it was difficult to get hold of the track, but at the end of it I managed to get it going. The changes we had made were for the better, but we do need to keep working to find even more speed. The draw for the first race was okay with second lane outside of Ekström. I even made it to the front and could set off at my own pace. Maybe I was a bit too cautious, but third place overall was a good start.”

Second and third heats were not quite that good.

”The second was pretty good. In the third heat the start wasn’t among the best, a lot of traffic and Doran’s car broke down leaving him in the middle of the track. After that I realized I needed a really fast time in the last qualification. I got off to a good start and was able to pass all the others on the outside. I pushed well, but halfway through the third lap something happened and I lost the turbo pressure.”

Still you set the fastest time. How was that possible?

”Well, I don’t know actually. After that, the boys in the team had some time to fix our problem and we thought we had found it, but in the semi-final I lost the pressure already in the start and the car stalled. Still, I went out as second behind Petter and the others tangled with each other and didn’t get close to me, even though I had lost the turbo pressure. Don’t ask me how that was possible, but you can drive a car like this even without turbo pressure. What happens is that there is no effect to pick up at the bottom. You have to go at very high Rpm and without drifting, which makes the car difficult to drive.”

But you made it to the final, and the front row.

”I went in behind Petter. Larsson passed me but I came back in the third corner. On the second lap I went into the joker. Then I hit a hole in the second corner, lost my grip and went into the soft part. At the end I lost some effect again and wasn’t able to put pressure on Dubourg for the last podium spot. At the same time he was driving fast. But I’m quite satisfied. This was a step forward, especially taking maximus of heat points in one of the races, which we have not done since Belgium. The turbo problem is something we know now. We tried something that was supposed to be better, but the durability was not good enough. We will go back to what we had before, marginally losing prestanda but being more reliable. When we go down to Spain next week we will make a short test with the new engine for my car.”

After France you had to take a tough defeat, versus Ole Christian in karting.

”Honestly, it’s not the end of the world. We went to Elverum with his two geared carts, KZ-2 125 cc. He beat me by six hundreds of a second, but neither him nor me being a King Kong in this area, I think we both would have been easily beaten by someone who knows this business. On top of that the cart was so tight I could hardly fit in. I could really feel that in my body afterwards.”

You have also made a short stop at Bosön this busy week.

”Swedish televison was there due to the new simulator that we have been testing for the motorsport federation. It was me, Fredrik Åhlin and Timmy Hansen who were invited.”

And you have also made yourself familiar with the Solvalla track ahead of this weekend’s race.

”I took some people on a ride in the new GT3 RS which is realeased now. 500 hp, a great car. There were some guests from Bauhaus, journalists and also the adventurer Aron Andersson.”

But the serious business at Solvalla means you trying to keep your winning streak in the Porsche Carrera Cup.

”That will be exciting. It’s a tricky track. I might have some advantage from knowing the track better than most of the others. A 100 % performance will be needed, already from the qualification.”

You have the small crew in Stockholm, meaning that your regular mechanics have a weekend off.

”But not from motorsport. Olle is supposed to be the co-driver for Andreas in a sprint rally at Westombanan in Arvika. I wonder if Olle has ever read a roadbook, so we will see how that works. I hope that someone is there to record it on film, ha-ha…”