Volkswagen Team Sweden

Johan enjoys Italy, gets sight problems and dislikes the silly…

”I like Italy. The people there are very interested and it seems as if some of them are aware of what I have done earlier. I guess Superstars is comparable to our STCC. I got around 200 new followers on Instagram during the weekend in Italy.”

Your second country… One reason could be that you are often successful down there.

”Things are usually in a good mood there. This time I was at it already from the start, but it is easy to conclude that the gravel parts were in too bad shape for a World Championship race. Too many outer conditions become decisive. The weather is something you can’t rule, but in this case the track became so bad that conditions were very unequal.”

You were fast during practice as well as in the first heat.

”Even though they had put water on the track and I was already in heat number four of nine. Petter was held up during his first lap, but he was in heat number nine when the track was more dry. It was nice to be fastest during those circumstances.”

In the second race you changed positions.

”Petter had one of those starts that you just can’t match. He takes a risk and releases the clutch a bit too early and is often successful doing that. Then I had to go behind him which is especially difficult as we have extremely different ways of driving. It’s easy to push too hard instead of trusting speed to be good enough. Afterwards I noticed I was second which was a good confirmation.”

Fastest on Sunday’s warm up, which is not an unfamiliar sight. Are you an early riser?

”Absolutely not! On the contrary, but maybe the others are worse? I think I have the potential to find a quick lap directly though.”

But in the third qualifying heat you didn’t find your way.

”That was when Petter had his false start, which he often avoids, but still I was behind him for two laps. It is very difficult when you can’t see anything because of the mud and rain.”

You can see that from pictures on tv, but how bad is that in reality?

”Worse! The camera is often mounted by the windscreen while you sit a bit longer to the back and you can’t see anything sideways either. In the best case you have a red light to follow, that’s it.”

In the last qualifying heat you didn’t seem to take the fight for the lead.

”Too much wheel spin and when I noticed that I just dropped the fight. I knew that 19 th spot would be enough to secure P1 overall.”

But in the semifinal you got a good start and reached the finish line with a clean car.

”A good start makes a difference. I was well coached over the radio and got the information that everything was under control. I didn’t need to push. I could have gone on at that speed the whole afternoon.”

But the final wasn’t that good, or should we say that Bakkerud’s start was fantastic.

”I knew that it would be very difficult to win if I was behind him in the start and he was fast all weekend. On some tracks it’s very important to get pole position but in this case lane three would have been preferable. It is difficult when you are number two in the start because you can’t take the joker at once and probably number three of four will do that and then have a chance to go really fast. We also had a problem with our radio but eventually it started working again and Bart told me to go into the joker on lap five. So everthing went well for another place on the podium.”

You’re in a good flow, two-three-two…

”I have gathered more points than any of the others during last three races. That’s a good trend. In fact, we have only had a dip for three races: Höljes, Canada and Norway.

Your team partner, Ole-Christian, also did his job, grabbing the bronze medal in the EC.

”I think you can say that he got everything he could get this weekend. That was nice for him having experienced a frustrating weekend in his native Norway where his car broke down.”

Now there’s a long rest ahead of the last WC in Argentine. I guess the teams will do some planning for next year, already…

”You could see that already in Italy. There were more drivers than usual paying visits to other teams, ha-ha. Silly season starts now and I don’t like it. A lot of talk and gossip and you don’t really know what to believe.”

You can relax by enjoying a free weekend for the first time in quite a long time.

”I have managed to fill my agenda anyway. On Friday evening I will be joining Emil for a Halloween party and on Sunday we are going to Falun to swap a water scooter och a snow scooter. And there will be some exercise of course. I have done two days in a row now and tonight there will be intervals.”