Saunders and Gustafson sweeps Gothenburg 1000At the first weekend of December 46 driver got together to decide the 33rd edition of Gothenburg 1000. This Year this annual race attracted drivers from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and last, but not least, England.The categories were Production 24 and Open 12 as warmup for the main class, Eurosport 24. The format was "all run 8x3 finals" for the openers on Saturday, and semis and main for the Sunday event. In Production Anders Gustafson took T.Q. with 5.254 before local driver Mats Andersson with 5.384 and Brian Saunders with 5.410. After seven heats in the A-final Anders and Brian were tied with 219 laps. Brian ended on black and could not keep the pace of Anders who won with 251 against Brian’s 249. Third was Denmark’s Lars Norkjear who had won the B-final. In Open 12 qualification Jan Ekman was the fastest with 4.659 followed by Anders Gustafson 4.742 and Brian Saunders 4.777. Also this class became a fight between Anders and Brian. This time they were tied after six heats with 204 laps. Once again Anders came out first with a total of 274 laps, while Brian managed 272. Third was former wingcar World Champion Lasse Åberg with 264 laps.  
Sunday, and time for the big one. Jan Ekman found the short way around the track with a 4.210. Second spot went to Lars Norkjaer with 4.300 and third to Sweden’s most successful scaledriver, 1994 double World Champion Michael Landrud with 4.358. Due to a controller failure Anders Gustafson wasn’t able to fight for the victory this time. To the final qualified Lars Norkjaer, Jan Ekman, Michael Landrud, Keith Gibson and Lars Harrysson from semi A. From semi B Brian Saunders and Lasse Torn went trough, and from semi C only the winner Graham Woodward. In the final Norkjaer and Gibson ran into technical problems and Torn’s car lacked the real speed. Landrud and Brian set the early pace, but some problems let Woodward take over after 3 heats. Woody then ran into gear problems and Landrud took back the lead with Brian chasing. He increased the lead, but in the sixth heat a gear change cost him 11 laps, and Brian was just one down. In heat seven braid trouble for Landrud let Brian take the lead by one lap, and Ekman was just another lap after. The tension kept on to the dying seconds of the main when Brian could take the win by one lap over Landrud, who finished 2 laps before Ekman and 8 before Harrysson.   
For complete results, please see: www.sveslot.se/resultat/2006/partille061203.html Janne Ekman |