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MATTIAS ANDERSSON - ALFA ROMEO 156 - SWEDISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP

Key race moments, top-to-bottom: Andersson fends off the VW Scirocco of Fredrik Ekblom in the dying laps of race one to secure an impressive second place; Andersson taking advantage as battle ahead of him between Magnussen and Rustad ends of lap 13 with a huge slide that drops the latter driver down to twelfth place; Andersson steers past a loose advertising hoarding on the eleventh lap of race two; and under the safety car a lap later as the errant signeage is removed.

Just weeks after the pensioned-off Alfa Romeo 156 dramatically won a round of the Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) at Knutstorp, the legendary Italian racing car has claimed yet more success, finishing in a stunning second place in the opening race as the series hit the waterfront streets of the Swedish port city of Göteborg for the highlight of the STCC calendar, the prestigious "Göteborg City Race", which was made even more demanding thanks to it being a round of the Scandinavian Touring Car Cup which saw the top Danish Touring Car Championship runners heading to the Swedish city.

Few of the long-in-the-tooth Alfa 156 "Super Touring" machines remain in action on the race tracks today in top-level competition, but notable one example, a former N.Technology factory car that is now driven by Mattias Andersson of the MA:GP team in the hotly-contested STCC, hit the tin-top headlines after taking a sensational win in the second race of the second round of the 2010 series held at Knutstorp recently. Aided by a reverse top-eight grid for the second heat of the double header, Andersson took full advantage of the slippery wet conditions to keep his main rivals at bay, crossing the finish line just over half a second ahead of Robert Dahlgren in the Volvo Olsbergs Green Racing Volvo C30 with the entire top-five covered by less than three seconds, and placing the 156 where any Alfa Romeo is born to be placed: in the winner's circle. After that race Andersson was upbeat that there was more to come from the ageing Alfa 156: "There are going to be more victories," he said, adding that: "we were fifth last year and the goal is to do an even better job this year." And more podium success wasn't long in coming.

Andersson was immediately into the groove on the temporary course in Göteborg over the weekend, the only street race on the racing calendar in Scandinavia, the Alfa 156 driver posting a best lap of 47.415 in the Q1 session on the city track which was just 1.650 km long as the fourth round of the STCC got underway in glorious sunshine. That lap came at an average speed of 125.227 km/h and it was just three-tenths away from former F1 star Jan Magnussen in Team Bauhaus' new Chevrolet Lacetti, the fastest runner in the 22-car strong field, setting Andersson up perfectly for the deciding Q2 session. This event had added prestige as it also counted towards the Scandinavian Touring Car Cup (STC) meaning the Danish Touring Car (DTC) runners were joining the STCC field to provide a real depth of quality.

Andersson's Q1 time had seen him safely through to Q2 and in the final session he improved further to claim a fourth best lap time of 47.320 seconds, just 0.125 seconds adrift off the pole position winning time set by Dahlgren (Volvo Olsbergs Green Racing/Volvo C30). That gave the Andersson a slot of the outside of the second row of the grid for the first race, with Dahlgren and Magnussen lining up on the front row and Tommy Rustad in the second Olsbergs Volvo next to Andersson on row two.

In the first race of the double-header event Andersson was able to take full advantage of the fierce battle just ahead of him between Magnussen and Rustad after the latter ended the tense encounter on lap 13 with a huge slide that dropped the Norwegian driver down to twelfth place. Magnussen then closed in on the leader, Dahlgren, but on the final corner of the final lap the former Formula 1 driver who now plies his trade with the factory Corvette team in the American Le Mans Series lost a tyre which plunged him down to seventh place allowing the agile white-red-and-blue Alfa Romeo to make up another place and sweep past the chequered flag in a superb second place, 3.556 seconds behind the winning Volvo and less than half a second clear of Fredrik Ekblom in the Team Biogas.Se VW Scirocco CNG.

Dick Sahlen (Mattias Ekström Juniorteam SEAT Leon) was fourth over the line while the first of the DTC runners, Robert Schlünssen (West Coast Racing BMW 320si) came home in sixth place. Andersson's best race lap was posted in 47.755 seconds, an average speed 115,571 km/h.

Andersson lined the pretty Alfa 156 up on the fourth row of the grid for race two as the series regulations see the top-eight finishing positions from race one reversed for the second encounter. Unfortunately Andersson was knocked out of the race on the fourteenth tour of the twenty-four lap event after a collision going into the final corner with Jason Watt (Team Bygma SEAT Leon) which appeared to be a mistake under braking from Watt and which resulted in the Dane piling into the side of the Alfa Romeo and eliminating both drivers.

His excellent recent results have done Andersson no harm at all in the title race and he currently has 79 points after four rounds and is lined up behind the points classification leader Dahlgren (133), Richard Göransson (122), Ekblom (97) and Patrik Olsson (80), who is just one point ahead of the Alfa Romeo pilot. The STCC will resume at Falkenberg in just over a month's time (July 9-10) for round five of nine.