Even though the weekend started with engine troubles for Jessica Bäckman, the 24-year-old Swede managed to turn the weekend around and claimed her fourth win out of six races in ADAC TCR Germany, after another remarkable weekend at Salzburgring.
At Salzburgring, Austria, the fourth event of the ADAC TCR Germany season was off to a troubled start for Jessica Bäckman (ROJA Motorsport by ASL Lichtblau), as she ran into engine issues in the free practice sessions on Friday. The technical gremlins meant that the 24-year-old could only participate in one of the two free practice sessions and the team had to perform a full engine change ahead of qualifying.
Bäckman did eventually start in Qualifying, but more problems arose that had to be solved. At that point, it was uncertain if she would have been able to be on the starting grid of Race 1 on Saturday.
With a great team effort, all problems were found and fixed - so nothing was standing in the way of the young Swede for the rest of the race weekend - even though the engine change resulted in a start from the back of the grid. Nevertheless, Bäckman never gave up.
After overtaking four cars in the first few minutes of Race 1, she pushed further and finished the race in an amazing fifth place.
"Extremely tough start to the weekend, for a while I did not know if I would be able to drive the rest of the weekend", Jessica Bäckman said. "It was nice that we finally found the fault and that I could drive myself up to a fifth place, and then I knew that I had new chances for top places on Sunday", she added.
The current Championship leader, Martin Andersen (LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler), finished the race in second place behind his team mate Szymon Ladniak (LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler).
On Sunday, chances were taken by the Sweden National Team driver, as she clinched the Pole Position in the second Qualifying of the weekend on Sunday morning, which set the grid for Race 2.
With a very good start, Jessica Bäckman was able to keep her position and led the field from start to finish, marking Sunday’s victory her fourth in the current season.
Bäckman has now won four out of six races and is defending her second place in the Championship standings with 156 points - only 8 points behind Martin Andersen, who finished Sunday’s race in second position.
"Everything was falling in place on Sunday, the car was perfect both during the qualifying and the race, and I was able to drive home another important victory" - Bäckman commented. "The facts that I now have 4 wins out of 6 possible already this season just feels indescribably good."
"Nice receipt that once the car runs as it should without technical issues, I'm up there", she continued. "It bodes well for the rest of the season."
Jessica Bäckman and the ADAC TCR Germany will be back on track - after a six-week summer break - on 5th to 7th of August at the Nürburgring in Germany, where she hopefully will be able to continue the winning streak.
