The 2025 edition of Västkustloppet saw the crowning of two first-time V8 Thunder Cars race winners in Nyman Racing teammates Charbel Jomha and Dennis Byqvist.
Two first-time winners were crowned in Västkustloppet, the second round of the 2025 V8 Thunder Cars season. Both Charbel Jomha and Dennis Byqvist celebrated their maiden victories after a hard fought effort at Falkenbergs Motorbana.
Jomha’s victory in Race 1 was the culmination of his quick rise in V8TC. The Nyman Racing driver started to race the TA2-spec V8TC machines in 2024 and quickly found himself contending with last year’s “Big 4” drivers of Andreas Nilsson, Christoffer Bergström, Tommie Eliasson and Stein Frederik Akre.
A changing of the guard for 2025 opened the room for Jomha to truly establish himself as a top V8TC contender. After close calls in the previous round at Anderstorp, Jomha finally broke through with a stunning pole-to-win in Race 1.
Jomha followed this result with two more podiums. This elevated the driver of the No. 29 Ford Mustang to second in the championship, just nine points behind Tommie who won Race 2 at Falkenbergs.
Tommie continued his strong pace at Anderstorp with his third win of the year, extending his championship lead to 105 points. However, a stall and later contact with Julia Eliasson in Race 3 resulted in a costly retirement for Team Brorsson’s lead driver.
Race 3 itself was won by Byqvist, Jomha’s teammate at Nyman Racing. Byqvist had already shown credibility as a two-time champion in Swedish Legend Cars, but even he was not expecting himself to win in just his second ever V8TC race meeting.
Byqvist’s victory was also historic as it marked Mercedes-Benz’s first V8TC victory. Various drivers had campaigned a Mercedes-Benz W205 C-Class racer since the 2022 season without much success.
Mercedes-Benz’s participation is unique to Europe. Models from the German marquee are not seen in other divisions using TA2 regulations, such as America’s Trans-Am where the regulation originated.
Bergström is currently third in the overall standings, 23 points behind Tommie. He scored a podium in Race 2, but lost crucial points in Race 3 after Conny Brorsson spun him into retirement on the opening lap.
Linus Holgersson extended his advantage in the Junior Trophy with two overall podiums. Holgersson is now tied on points with Conny, but he lost out to the more experienced Conny on the best finish tie.
Both drivers had one runner-up and one third place finishes, but Conny had two fourths while Holgersson had none.
Byqvist’s maiden win promoted the driver of the No. 9 Mercedes to sixth with 59 points. Young Driver Programme graduate Rémi Mannent is seventh with 38 points, level on points with Isac Aronsson who scored three fifths in his No. 70 Camaro.
Julia and Robert Möller completed the top-10 in the standings. Möller also swept the Super Star Trophy, being the only Super Star contender to score overall championship points at Falkenbergs.
American Matthew Butson was due to be replaced by Team Trysil’s regular Frederik Akre, having got a chance to race in V8TC in between his maiden Trans-Am campaign.
However, a late surgery for the Norwegian left him unable to race his traditional yellow No. 98 Camaro. Team Trysil would eventually sign Alexander Andersson for a late replacement deal. Andersson scored one point in Race 2, putting him 16th in the standings.
Three drivers scored their first championship points at Falkenbergs. Viktor Karlsson was the most successful of the lot, scoring five points with the No. 44 Mercedes W205.
Filipe Skagerfält grabbed an impressive seventh in Race 1 onboard his white-and-green No. 19 Örby Gummi Racing Camaro. Gustav Berggren finished tenth in Race 3 to bring home his and Cadillac’s first ever points in the series.
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.