Archive for the ‘National Rallying’ Category
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Peter Zachrisson, from Säffle (the same small town where Daniel Carlsson, Tina Thörner, L-E Torph, Mats Karlsson and a lot of other Swedish rally people come from), is doing his first start in this years Swedish Championship this weekend. I don’t often to write about the Swedish Championship – but it happens and Peter really is a fresh wind so…
In today’s NWT Peter tells that he has installed active differentials and paddle gearshift in his car – a Volvo 940(!!!). That’s quite amazing!
So, now you think: “Who cares about Zachrisson?”. Peter had a few OK chances a some years ago doing the Swedish Rally and planning an international career, but sadly it never really happened for him because of financial trouble. However, Peter is a hell of a driver and I tell you – watch this video, and then you’ll care. Especially – listen to the sound when he passes in front of the camera:
Thanks to Adielssonmotorsport for the video.
Tags: daniel carlsson, lars-erik torph, mats karlsson, peter zachrisson, rally-sm, swedish championship, tina thörner, volvo 940
Posted in National Rallying, Swedish Rallying, Video | No Comments »
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
There are a whole bunch of videos from Kimi Räikkönen’s drive in Arctic Rally Lapland 2010. Here are a few…
Kimi Räikkönen, day 1:
Kimi Räikkönen, day 2:
Kimi Räikkönen, on-board showing Kimi’s C4WRC after his accident on SS2:
Thanks to Ludtati for all the videos.
Tags: 2010, arctic rally, citroen c4wrc, kimi räikkönen, lapland, rally, test, Video, youtube
Posted in National Rallying, Rally testing, Video, WRC | 7 Comments »
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Räikkönen went off already on the second special stage in the Arctic Lapland Rally in Finland yesterday. Despite that, it was quite an impressive competitive debut in Citroen C4 WRC for the former Formula 1 driver. He set second fastest time already on the first special stage, and continued to post competitive times throughout the weekend, after getting back from the SS2 ditch with a big delay and time penalty.
Räikkönen’s experienced co-driver Kaj Lindström commented after SS9 that the difference to Sordo was 0.9 seconds per kilometer, and at the same time stated that the duo knew they were going slowed than they could – partly because the car setting still wasn’t 100% adapted to Räikkönen’s preferences. Even Kimi himself said at the that he didn’t think it would be very difficult to drive faster, since he knew that the car wasn’t really as he wanted it to be.
Personally, I think Räikkönen got a good and really impressive start. An early off was probably just good for him, since that showed him exactly were the limit was and it also took the overall placement totally off his shoulders. With nothing to fight for in the rally, Kimi could put his focus just on improving his own driving and the car while still having the possibility to compare himself to others, stage by stage.
What I doubt a little bit more is the easiness of going faster. Kimi seems perfectly comfortable by being slower as he knows it’s “the car settings’ fault”. That’s probably perfectly true, but that’s also half the challenge in rallying. You must get a good setup of the car that works from stage to stage. Of course F1 is also much about fine tuning of car settings, but the conditions there are often a little bit more stable. In rallying you’re driving for a longer time and over longer distances, and conditions may vary much or extremely much (Rally Monte Carlo is the perfect example). That’s a part of the challenge and shouldn’t be underestimated.
However, to sum it up I’m really impressed by Kimi’s performance – and it will be a big pleasure to see his developments throughout the season. Go Kimi! 
Tags: 2010, accident, arctic rally, arctic rally lapland, car, citroen c4 wrc, dani sordo, formula 1, kimi räikkönen, off road, settings
Posted in National Rallying, Rally testing | 1 Comment »
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Petter Solberg on the start ramp of Svully Rally Dahbi today. Photo: PSWRT
The Norweigan Svully Rally Dahbi were ran today, and as expected Petter Solberg won the rally with a huge margin to second placed Marcus Grönholm. However, as the rally primarily was an interesting test for the upcoming Rally Sweden – some things were more interesting than the end results:
- Solberg, who sealed a sponsorship agreement with energy drink Mad-Croc earlier this week, were happy with the car and had adjusted settings that made him even more comfortable with the Citroen C4 WRC than last weekend in Sweden.
- Marcus Grönholm won the fight over both Mikkelsen and Sandell – all running in Subaru Impreza group N cars, were Grönholm had the oldest one of them. However, the battle between Mikkelsen and Sandell were quite close despite Mikkelsen being the one most used to his car. That is interesting since Mikkelsen is often considered more of a “raw talent” than Sandell.
- Swedish young shot Pontus Tidemand were impressive managing to keep up the speed with Patrik Sandell and finishing just 1.2 secs behind. There you can talk about a raw talent, and I’d be surprised if we don’t see Pontus in the international arena within a few years!
Tags: 2010, andreas mikkelsen, citroen c4wrc, marcus grönholm, patrik sandell, petter solberg, pontus tidemand, rally sweden, subaru impreza, svulla rally dahbi
Posted in National Rallying, Rally testing, WRC | No Comments »
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
The Svully Rally Dahbi in Norway this weekend will be one of the main events for many drivers in their testing for Rally Sweden. With extremely short transport distances compared to the amount of SS the event will be cheap and effective – and with the key people from Rally Norway’s organisation in the lead, such a rally is almost a given success. Among the entries are Petter Solberg, Henning Solberg, Marcus Grönholm, Patrik Sandell and Andreas Mikkelsen.
A strange thing though is that PG Andersson has been named as an entrant in many places, including on http://www.svullyrallydahbi.no, that seems like the rally’s official website. However, PG has told Swedish media that he will be a zero car driver in Swedish Bergslagsrallyt the very same day, that he will not start in Norway and that he has never entered the event (and don’t know why he has been named as an entrant). Strange?!?!
It will be nice to see how the event will be when it’s run. And while we’re waiting for that to happen, I’ll keep on wondering about the owners of the rally. Dahbi makes me think of Abu Dhabi, a name that has been appearing often in the World Rally Championship since a few years. And through a few questions on Google, you can find out that there is a British company registered in London called “Svully Rally Dahbi Limited”. And, if I don’t get it totally wrong (which I may do…) – this British company owns 100% of the stocks in a Norweigan company, led by Even Wiger (m.d. of Rally Norway), with the very same name. It’s not a big thing, but I just wonder why there is a company registered in the UK at all, if the owners would be just Norweigans?! Since I love to speculate, I now guess that some other guys are involved in this as owners, potentially some rich men from Abu Dhabi… However, if so – one question remains. Why can’t they spell Dahbi correct? That seems quite embarassing…
End of speculation. Over and out!
Tags: abu dhabi, andreas mikkelsen, bergslagsrallyt, british, henning solberg, ltd, marcus grönholm, patrik sandell, petter solberg, pg andersson, svully rally dahbi, svully rally dahbi limited, svully rally dhabi, uk, united kingdom
Posted in General, General rallying, National Rallying, Rally testing, WRC | No Comments »
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
Another video of Petter in Finnskogsvalsen, with a little bit more action shots, have been published. It also features a lot of nice local cars, but if you want just Petter – look at the beginning of the film for SS1 and at 1:44 for SS3.
If more movies of Petter in Finnskogsvalsen appear later, they’ll be added to this post – so check back for latest.
NEW! Video with service and some action shots.
Thanks to bakkis2 for this video.
Thanks to cnygge for the video.
Tags: 2010, finnskogsvalsen, petter solberg, phil mills, rally sweden, sweden, torsby, värmland, Video
Posted in National Rallying, Rally testing, Swedish Rallying, WRC | No Comments »
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
This weekend, Kimi Räikkönen and co-driver Kaj Lindström has made their first test in the Citroën C4WRC on snow, up in northern Finland where they will drive the Arctic Rally next week. Looking at this short video Kimi obviously went flat out immediately on the test road, trying if the suspension of the C4 was up to the challenge of some Finnish jumps… And it was! Short but fantastic clip!
Thanks to ludtati for the video.
Tags: arctic rally, citroen c4wrc, finland, fly, jump, kaj lindström, kimi räikkönen, rovaniemi, snow, test, Video
Posted in National Rallying, Rally testing, WRC | 1 Comment »
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
Petter Solberg's car in service during Finnskogsvalsen. Photo: PSWRT
Petter Solberg were fastest through the stages in Swedish local competition Finnskogsvalsen today, as expected (I dare to say this despite the last stage is still running, since Petter is through with a normal time and his advantage on the previous stage is 3min 56 seconds). The Norweigan drove his Citroën C4WRC through a little bit more than 80 km’s of competitive stages and seemed to be really happy about the car. Since he recced and made his own notes for the rally, which is not allowed, Petter took part out of the competition and couldn’t win the rally. This, however, is probably nothing that will give Petter problems sleeping tonight – since the rally was first and foremost a test of his new car before Rally Sweden.
At the same time, a number of big names competed in the Norweigan Championship round Mountain Rally in Norway. Anders Gröndal took the victory from second placed Henning Solberg, who were haunted by mechanical problems in his competitive debut with new co-driver Ilka Minor. Mads Östberg with his Swedish co-driver Jonas Andersson led the rally until he hit a snow bank, forcing him out of the competition. Third was Sveinung Bieltvedt, in a Subaru Impreza.
Of course even Henning, going with a Ford Focus WRC05, used the rally primarily as a preparation for Rally Sweden. In this, he was joined by Andreas Mikkelsen and Eyvind Brynhildsen, among others. Brynhildsen scored a fourth place in his Skoda Fabia S2000 while Mikkelsen scored fifth going with his Subaru Impreza – after being penalised with 1min 20s after having to change gearbox in service. Looking at Mikkelsens time if he wouldn’t have had the penalty, he was only a few seconds after Brynhildsen in his S2000, something that maybe indicates that Mikkelsen can be really, really fast when going into the Fiesta S2000 in Sweden!?
Photos from Finnskogsvalsen at Backmans Foto
Results from Finnskogsvalsen 2010 at Resultatdata
Results from Mountain Rally 2010
Tags: 2010, andreas mikkelsen, citroen c4wrc, eyvind brynhildsen, finnskogsvalsen, ford fiesta super2000, ford focus wrc05, henning solberg, ilka minor, jonas andersson, mads östberg, mountain rally, norweigan championship, petter solberg, pswrt, rally sweden, recce, s2000, skoda fabia super2000, subaru impreza, sveinung bieltvedt
Posted in National Rallying, Rally testing, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Swedish Rallying, WRC | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Henning Solberg will prepare for this years Rally Sweden by doing the Norweigan Championship round Mountain Rally this weekend. This will also be the first appearance together with his new co-driver, Ilka Minor. Despite the fact that Henning Solberg has won more Norweigan Championship events than anyone else, he doesn’t expect to win. He’ll be busy recording a TV show during the recce on Friday, and will therefore drive only on the notes from his appearance in the same rally in 2006. However, I think we shall expect Henning to be really quick and maybe even challenge for the win…
Tags: 2010, henning solberg, ilka minor, mountain rally, nm, norweigan championship, rally sweden
Posted in National Rallying, Rally testing, WRC | No Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Magnus Samuelsson, probably the strongest man in a rally car?! Photo: Gustafssons foto
Now it’s confirmed. As I revealed earlier today, Magnus Samuelsson (World’s Strongest Man) will start Rally Sweden 2010. The team aims to start in the World Rally Championship round, but since they still don’t have a full budget a Swedish Championship start may be the case instead. Magnus is backed by Fredrik Eljas and Olof Eljas, and the later of them will be responsible for giving Magnus the training needed (not physical, huh!?!) to do the start.
The team will run a 280bhp Subaru Impreza group N of latest spec. Magnus Samuelsson himself comments the start as follows:
- This is my dream as a young boy coming true. I’ve tried “folkrace” before but the dream has always been to drive a real rally car. It will be a true adventure and just the thought of being at the start line along with Loeb and the other boys is breathtaking.
Read the article (in Swedish) at RallySweden.com
Tags: 2010, folkrace, fredrik eljas, group n, magnus samuelsson, olof eljas, rally sweden, subaru impreza, swedish championship, world's strongest man
Posted in National Rallying, Rally promotion and media coverage, Silly season, Swedish Rallying, WRC | 1 Comment »
