Two victories in the three races held at Karlskoga’s Gelleråsen Arena is more than enough for Christoffer Bergström to triple his lead in the V8 Thunder Cars championship.
The second round of the 2024 V8 Thunder Cars season provided all of the drama for the fans, but it also provided more silverware for Team Pampas’ Christoffer Bergström after the 53-year old driver took wins in two out of the three heat races held at Karlskoga’s legendary Gelleråsen Arena.
In fact, a complete sweep was on the cards for Bergström had he not made contact with Superpole winner Dennis Strandberg in Race 2. This opened the path for Tommie Eliasson to take victory, his second of the season.
Race 1 Recap
Seventeen drivers started the first race on Saturday and surprisingly, it was the rookie Charbel Jomha who got the best launch. The driver of the No. 29 Mercedes AMG W205 C-Class jumped pole sitter Andreas Nilsson to take the holeshot and maintained his lead on the opening lap.
Four more drivers also got past Nilsson on the opening lap: Fellow rookie Jonathan “Jonte” Engström, Bergström, Tommie and Strandberg. Nilsson later revealed that he had suffered clutch issues on his Racebil.se No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Bergström quickly got past Jonte on lap 1, but the driver of the No. 17 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was able to hold off multiple challenges from his more experienced rivals.
Even though Jonte was the one that’s on the hot seat, it was Tommie who bit the dust first after he got rear-ended by Strandberg on lap 4. Later on the same lap and unseen by the TV cameras, Linus Holgersson had a clutch failure that forced him to retire as well.
A lap later, Strandberg had a high-speed spin that dropped him down the running order. Jomha then had to take the escape road at Turn 1 on the following lap, moments before Stein Frederic Akre retired after he got hit by Conny Brorsson.
Frederic Akre and Conny’s contact also sent Robert Möller into a 360 degrees spin, but Möller managed to keep his No. 11 Ford Mustang running and rejoined with minimal time loss.
All of these incidents, plus the arrival of rain, led the Porsche Taycan Safety Car to be called at the start of lap 8. The Taycan led the field for three laps before the race got underway again on lap 11.
Despite slippery track conditions, Bergström managed to keep his Mustang pointing in the right direction to win by 0.433 seconds from Nilsson. Bergström also clinched the top spot in the Super Star category with this result.
Jonte took the Junior win and his maiden overall podium in third after Jomha spun off with two laps to go. Isac Aronsson ran a quiet, yet solid race to claim fourth place. Rounding out the top-5 is Möller, who completed an amazing comeback that earned him the “Driver of the Race” award.
Another amazing story was told by Julia Eliasson, who secured a career-best sixth place finish. Despite starting from dead last, Julia kept her No. 12 Chevrolet Camaro away from incidents and was rewarded with the best ever finishing result for a female driver in recent years.
With Jomha’s late spin, Per-Olof Selerup wound up as the best AMG driver in seventh. The top-10 and final points paying positions were filled by Conny, Strandberg and Ronny Olson.
Race 2 Recap
The second race started with pole sitter Strandberg getting the perfect getaway. Nilsson’s clutch failed him yet again and he dropped from second on the grid to seventh, nearly getting taken out by Tommie and Frederic Akre in the process.
The opening lap ended with Strandberg in the lead followed by Bergström, Frederic Akre, Jomha and Jonte. Strandberg and Bergström remained up front for the next few laps, but Tommie was catching quickly and got past his rivals to move up to third position when the race reached lap 5.
It was on this lap where Strandberg and Bergström collided on Turn 9, sending the former into the gravel trap and the latter into a spin. Strandberg was forced to retire just a few laps later, but Bergström managed to rejoin the race in seventh.
Further back, Ronny Olsson also had a spin of his own accord at Turn 7. Unfortunately for Olsson, he stalled his No. 60 Team 4 Food Camaro and was forced to retire as a result.
Strandberg and Bergström’s collision was good news for Tommie, who remained untouched at the front to the checkered flag. The driver of the No. 52 Camaro ZL1 crossed the line first ahead of Frederic Akre and Nilsson, with Jomha missing out on the podium by half a second.
Aronsson completed the top-5 thanks to a calculating drive behind the wheel of the No. 70 Isacs Racing Camaro ZL1. The Junior winner saved his Yokohama tires for the second half of the race, allowing him to break away from the multi-car battle that was happening in the midfield.
Sixth placed finisher and fellow Junior driver Holgersson fended off Bergström, who still took the win in the Super Star category. Conny, Jonte and Selerup completed the top-10 positions, the latter two also rounding out the top-3 in their special classifications.
Race 3 Recap
For the third race, Nilsson and Bergström shared the front row of the grid and they both came to the first corner in the lead, with Bergström again taking advantage of Nilsson’s faulty clutch to jump the reigning champion for the holeshot.
There was an early collision for Möller and Nilsson’s teammate Håkan Sjöman, who encountered each other in the first corner. Both drivers rejoined at the tail end of the field.
In contrast to the first two races where incidents played a factor on who ended up winning, Race 3 went relatively smoothly with no other on-track collisions amongst the leaders.
It doesn’t mean that the race is boring though as the battle at the front was tense all-race long. Bergström had to give everything he had in his No. 42 Ford Mustang from Nilsson, who made attacks after attacks on the 53-year old driver.
However, Bergström’s masterful driving allowed him to fend off Nilsson’s offense and the Team Pampas driver went on to clinch his third win of the season by just 0.570 seconds.
Tommie completed the podium ahead of Strandberg, who finally saw the checkered flag without any major incidents to note. Frederic Akre, the sole non-Swedish driver on the field at Karlskoga, rounded out the top-5 with his Team Trysil Camaro.
Brorsson and Jomha were sixth and seventh ahead of Jonte, the winner of the Junior classification. Holgersson and Aronsson took the final points-paying positions that were up for grabs for Race 3.
Eleventh place went to Julia, who lost a chance to finish in the points after she met a spinning Selerup on lap 8. Selerup lost the tail end of his car at Turn 9 and it happened right in front of Julia’s No. 12 Chevrolet Camaro.
Julia had to make a complete stop to avoid crashing into the side of Selerup’s No. 19 AMG. This cost her more than ten seconds to her rivals, which ultimately denied her the chance to score points on back-to-back days at Gelleråsen.
Championship Standings
Bergström now sits with 101 points to his name and manages to triple his lead in the championship standings. The gap that was 11 points entering the round has now turned into 32 points, with Nilsson acting as the closest chaser.
Tommie’s Race 1 retirement meant that he is now 44 points adrift despite taking home the victory in Race 2. Frederic Akre and Conny completed the top-5, both with a huge 40 and 60 points of deficit respectively.
Jomha just missed out on an overall top-5 position, but he remained as the top rookie. Right behind Jomha is Jonte, who is now leading the Junior classification on both the overall standings and Junior’s own championship.
Aronsson, Strandberg and Holgersson rounded out the top-10 positions. Julia’s career-best sixth-place finish in Race 1 promoted her up to fourteenth in the standings.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.