Career highlights

2011 was a succesful year of racing for Edward Sandström:
Winner with Team Need for Speed Schubert Motorsport in Dubai 24h, Barcelona 24h, and a second place at Spa 24h in a BMW Z4 GT3.
One win and a second place in FIA GT3, a win in the VD1T class in a BMW 320d in VLN and a third place overall in VLN10 in the BMW Z4 GT3.
Unfortunately the car was crashed by a team mate whilst running second in the classic Nürburgring 24h. A memorable race was driving for Panoz in the ALMS Mosport!

Below you can read about his previous career in racing.

Edward started racing gokarts, in Micro and Mini, as most of the worlds successful racing drivers. But actually it started a lot earlier than that – with a crash! Edward, two years old, with his 16 months older brother as co-driver, rolled down a hill in their mothers car and crashed into a building. Luckily no one was hurt, except for the car, but the event was highlighted by national newspapers – and the first crash of a few to come was a fact for soon-to-be racing driver Sandström.

As a youngster he raced in Renault 5 Junior Cup, both driving and learning about car mechanics, together with a very helpful dad.
The big break-through came in 1999, when Edward Sandström won a fully paid season in the junior series JTCC, Junior Touring Car Championship, in a readers contest in Sweden’s most renowned car magazine Teknikens Värld (for which he still does some work – for example driving the Lexus LFA on Nürburgring for a huge story, and as a racing intructor for the magazine’s readers). The world (or at least Sweden) lay before his feet and Sandström took the opportunity and took his first victory in the third race. His future was set. He was going to become a professional racing driver.

The following season, year 2000, he started his own team and won several races over the season. When the last race was finished he was the Junior Touring Car Champion. And now aiming for Formula Ford…

…where he won five victories and a total second place in the championship.
During 2001 he also raced in the national Radical series, where he won two races. That season ended with a successful test for Volvo in STCC, Swedish Touring Car Championship, a test which led to a full-time seat for 2002. In a Supertouring Volvo!

In the very first race weekend for Volvo, for the first time backed by a professional team, Edward Sandström won the race! It was followed by three more during the season and he finished fourth overall, missing the third spot by just a small margin.

For 2003 and 2004 Sandström found himself with no roof over his head – instead he was now in a single seater, Formula Renault V6 with 370 bhp and weighing in at only 700 kg. Classic racetracks such as Barcelona, Spa

Francorchamps and Monaco were raced as a support race during the F1 race weekends. Best result was an eight place in Monaco.

In 2005 Sandström returned to Sweden for another year with Volvo, this time with Polestar Racing, in the STCC and he finished fourth overall.

In 2006 Edward stayed in STCC but switched from a front wheel driven Volvo to a rear wheel driven BMW when he joined the team Flash Engineering. The season was unfortunately cut short with one of the worst crashes in the history of STCC (almost as well covered by national newspapers as Sandströms crash when he was only two years old…). The season continued for Sandström with stints and wins in Ginetta and Carrera Cup Scandinavia.

For the 2007 season Sandström again started his own team, now in Carrera Cup Scandinavia (one of the worlds largest Carrera Cup championships) and he managed to collect the Championship trophy after four victories, five pole positions and 17 podium finishes.

In 2008 Edward Sandström Racing grew, Sandström himself raced a new Porsche 997 and the team also ran an Audi A3 for Mattias Ekström Junior Team in the JTCC, together with an Audi RS4 and a Porsche 996 in SLC, The Swedish Long Distance Cup.

In 2010 Edward Sandström left Sweden again and joined Team Need for Speed in a brand new BMW Z4 GT3. Schubert Motorsport ran the Team Need for Speed GT3 program along with selected endurance events, including the Nürburgring 24h where the team managed to finish fourth.