Against much newer and much more developed touring car racing machines from the likes of BMW, VW, SEAT and Volvo, Mattias Andersson in the beautiful MA:GP-run Alfa Romeo 156 'Super Touring 2000' (a car formerly used by Alfa Romeo factory driver James Thompson) was in commanding form at Mantorp Park over the weekend for the series' final round of the year at the wheel of a racing car that has long since entered the history books as one of Alfa Romeo's greatest track legends.

The Alfa Romeo 156 first hit the track in anger more than a decade ago and in the hands of the official factory team, run through the N.Technology outfit, it claimed huge successes, the "Super Touring 2000" category car winning race after race in the FIA European- and World-Touring Car Championships with world-class tin-top drivers such as Fabrizio Giovanardi, Gabriele Tarquini, Augusto Farfus, Roberto Colciago and James Thompson. Today the Alfa 156's glories on tracks such as Silverstone, Monza, Pau, Imola, Brno, Brands Hatch and Spa-Francorchamps have been virtually consigned to the pages of history books, with just a handful of privateer-run machines still in race action. The most-competitive Alfa 156 still to be racing though is the example driven by Andersson in the hotly-contested Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC)

Andersson has already tasted victory this year in the Alfa 156 as well as making further trips to the podium and the Swede has remained amongst the front runners in the championship going into the weekend's double header, the ninth and final round of this year's STCC, although not being within a shout at the title. Having set third fastest time in the morning practice session (just 0.085 seconds off the fastest time) Andersson wasn't headed in the Q1 qualifying round, planting the stunning #20 red-white-and-blue Alfa 156 at the top of the time sheets, just 0.036 seconds ahead of STCC title-chasing Robert Dahlgren (Volvo Olsbergs Green Racing/Volvo C30) and the similar Swedish machine of Dahlgren's team mate Tommy Rustad who was in turn 0.179 seconds adrift of the Alfa Romeo. That perfectly set Andersson up for Q2 qualifying and he continued his scintillating form, posting the fastest time of the session on only his third lap to claim pole, 0.179 seconds ahead of Thed Björk (Flash Engineering/BMW 320si) who was the Alfa driver's target in his quest for fourth place in the final STCC standings. Row 2 was shared by two of the title contenders: Dahlgren and Richard Göransson (WestCoast Racing BMW Dealer Team/BMW 320si) who would start their showdown side-by-side.

In race one Andersson was unstoppable and after 14 laps and 23 minutes and 32.941 seconds of hard-fought racing he was the first driver past the chequered flag to take a valuable 25 points. His best lap of the race was in 1:22.620(135,338km/h), the third quickest time of the 19 runners taking the green light. "I am very pleased as I had a great car in this race," said Andersson at the finish. Chasing him all the way to the line was Dahlgren, just 1.947 seconds back at the chequered flag. Race 2 was much less promising as Andersson started off from eighth place thanks to the reverse grid system but he was out after just three laps.