Race win for Audi driver Fredrik Ekblom in Sweden Electronics slow down Belgian Audi team Premature end after strong performance Race win for Audi driver Fredrik Ekblom in SwedenSTCC: In round four of the Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) at Falkenberg, Audi driver Fredrik Ekblom had literally no luck: The 2003 STCC Champion drew only the 15th position in the "grid lottery” for the first qualifying race. Ekblom was able to move to 9th but took victory in the second qualifying heat. As a result, Ekblom started from 6th on the grid in the finale where he narrowly missed a spot on the podium finishing 5th. Team-mate Tommy Kristoffersson finished 8th and 3rd in the two qualifying heats respectively and 9th in the finale. Electronics slow down Belgian Audi team BTCS: Jean-Francois Hemroulle and Tim Verbergt dropped from second to fifth in the Belgian Touring Car Series (BTCS) after round four of the series, staged prior to the 25 (!) Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. Starting 5th with the Audi A4 Silhouette, the two Belgians stayed in touch with the leaders in the first heat, before problems with the electronics slowed them down which eventually deprived them from a good result also in the second race. News from the Audi brand group Premature end after strong performanceLMES: The first race entry of the Japanese Lamborghini Owners Club in the Le Mans Endurance Series (LMES) ended prematurely. At the Monza 1000 kilometres, the two "Japanese” Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT sports cars retired with mechanical problems during the second half of the race. Peter Kox and Norman Simon had set the 5th fastest time of the GT1 class in qualifying and were leading the race for a long time. Audi PlayStation Team ORECA did not take part in the Monza round, but will contest the remaining three LMES races at Silverstone, Nürburgring and Istanbul.

Results and points Falkenberg (S), 10 July, Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) round 4 1 Robert Dahlgren (Volvo) 25 laps in 19m 55.852s 2 Richard Göransson (BMW) + 0.400s 3 Tomas Engström (Honda) + 3.747s 4 Edward Sandström (Volvo) + 4.498s 5 Fredrik Ekblom (Audi A4 STCC) + 5.079s .. 8 Tommy Kristoffersson (Audi A4 STCC) + 11.057s Positions after 4 of 8 rounds: 1 Björk, 61 points; 2 Sandström, 58; 3 Engström, 54; 4 Göransson, 52; 5 Stureson, 44; 6 Ekblom, 36; ... 10 Kristoffersson, 19. Next race: Knutstorp (S), 7 August Spa-Francorchamps (B), 9 July, Belgian Touring Car Series (BTCS) round 4 Race 1:1 Jérome Thiry/Vincent Radermecker (Jaguar) 24 laps in 1h 02m 25.186s 2 Marc Lupant/Patrick Slaus (BMW) + 25.900s 3 Fred Bouvy/David Loix (Porsche) + 54.743s 4 Pascal Mathieu/Marc Duez (Porsche) + 1m 17.464s 5 Steve Vanbellingen/Armand Fumal (BMW) + 1m 24.015s .. 7 Jean-Francois Hemroulle/Tim Verbergt (Audi A4 Silhouette) - 1 lap Race 2:1 Jérome Thiry/Vincent Radermecker (Jaguar) 24 laps in 1h 02m 32.254s 2 Marc Lupant/Patrick Slaus (BMW) + 31.566s 3 Fred Bouvy/David Loix (Porsche) + 40.501s 4 Bernard Delhez/Stephane Lemeret (Jaguar) + 50.110s 5 Pascal Mathieu/Marc Duez (Porsche) + 1m 21.533s .. 32 Jean-Francois Hemroulle/Tim Verbergt (Audi A4 Silhouette) - 3 laps Positions after 4 of 6 rounds: 1 Bouvy/Loix, 295.5 points; 2 Nef/Delcour, 290; 3 Thiry/Radermecker, 274; 4 Mathieu, 254,5; 5 Hemroulle/Verbergt, 254. Next race: Zolder (B), 18 September Monza (I), 10 July, Le Mans Endurance Series (LMES) round 2 1 Emmanuel Collard/Jean-Christophe Boullion (Pescarolo-Judd) 173 laps in 5h 02m 32.220s 2 Sam Hignett/John Stack/Haruld Kurosawa (Zytek) - 5 laps 3 Joao Barbosa/Martin Short/Vanina Ickx (Dallara-Judd) - 7 laps 4 Claude-Yves Gosselin/Karim Ojeh/Vincent Vosse (Courage-Ford) - 8 laps 5 Bob Berridge/Gareth Evans/Peter Owen (Lola-AER) - 9 laps Positions after 2 of 5 rounds: 1 Collard and Boullion, 18 points; 2 Shimoda, 13; 3 Short and Ickx, 12; 5 Nielsen and Elgaard, 10.Next race: Silverstone (GB), 14 August

Coming up next week DTM press conference with Audi factory driver Mattias Ekström at Nuremberg (Monday, 12 a.m.) ... Round 6 of the DTM at the Norisring (Sunday) ... Round 5 of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) at Infineon Raceway (Sunday) .. Rounds 13, 14 and 15 of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) at Croft (Sunday) ... Rounds 9 and 10 of the German SEAT Leon Supercopa at the Norisring (Saturday/Sunday) ...