Stefans next and final 'double-points' round of the Swedish championship was at Mantorp park, a big circuit, with the huge main straight also serving as a drag racing strip, which means a fair bit of rubber laid down sometimes making life "slippery when wet..."
A defective chain had spoilt the last race here, stretching abnormally and jumping the sprockets, meaning a 10th place instead of the 5th we had been hoping for.
This time the team were confident of a better result.Dunlop had flown in special qualifying tyres to help Stefan, the top placed Dunlop rider, clinch the 3rd place in the championship, but the bad luck that had dogged Stefan continued, as he went out for the warm up lap to heat the qualifying tyre up, another concurrent crashed, the session was red-flagged while the track was cleared, and by the time Stefan got back out on the track it had begun to rain, ruining any chance of a fast time and a good grid place for the start.
He was 19th on the grid, only a second off pole, but to far from the front to hope for a good place, and sure enough, he was held up for 8 or 9 laps by slower riders, forcing him to take risks to get past on a difficult track to pass on, except down the main straight, where sadly the Ducati's lack of initial acceleration made getting the jump on the lighter R6's and GSXR's hard.
Overtaking at the end of the straight and taking other riders under braking got Stefan up to 11th place, but sadly that wasn't enough and he finished the Synsam Trophy Supersport series 6th place overall and first Ducati.
The series was won by fast and furious Norwegian ace Kai Borre Anderson, R6, with 180 points, 2nd Lasse Carlbark, R6, 135 points, 3rd Peter Engdahl, CBR Honda 'Ten-Kate', 124 points, 4th Par Johansson, CBR 'Ten Kate', 113 points, 5th Jimmy Lindstrom, Suzuki GSXR, 107 points, and Stefan, with 101 points.

Now the team starts preparing for the 2002 season, after the huge success of the FULLY TELEVISED championship, which attracted huge audiences and official importers teams!
If only we had a series as strong as this in France......
Helped by the Swedish Motorcycle Federation with diesel money for the bus, Stefan was able to complete the last two rounds of the European championship held the 30th of September in Braga, Portugal, and the 7th of October in Cartagena, Spain.
Reunited with the team, we went to Braga sure of a good result.
The circuit had just been totally resurfaced, and lack of grip was a problem until it poured with rain, washing of the dirt and dust left over from the recent works.
The track is very fast, but with a very stupid chicane spoiling things a little, and there was a general feeling of disbelief about the lack of safety by the organisation, as there is an airfield in the centre of the track, and aircraft were landing and helicopters taking off while the racing was going on, blowing dust, stones and dirt over the track, and passing just over the top of the riders !!!
With two free practice sessions in pouring rain, Krister and I voted the track the most filthy and dirty we had EVER seen.