Archive for the ‘National Rallying’ Category
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Cato Menkerud, former co-driver of Henning Solberg, joins Eyvind Brynhildsen in his S-WRC assault this year. Until now, Brynhildsen has been co-driven by the experienced French co-driver Denis Giraudet, who seems to have been set aside when Menkerud got free. Menkerud will join the young Norweigan starting with a test already next week, and then in the next Norweigan Championship round, Mountain Rally, on the 23rd of January – and will then continue during he S-WRC season.
Obviously the recruitment will be a major boost for Brynhildsen. He has already had an experienced co-driver in Giraudet, but he will now have a fellow countryman, speaking his own language and with heavy experience alongside himself. Also on the marketing side, I think Cato will be good with contacts and his familiar face to media. The only negative aspect I think is the important contacts that Denis Giraudet has, especially since he’s a frenchman – and it’s widely known that the French guys in rallying appreciate to work with their countrymen. This means that Brynhildsen (this is on a very inofficial basis) loses some contacts and goodwill among the French actors in rallying, that Cato maybe cannot weight up.
No matter what, it will be really interesting to see what the Norweigan duo can do. Both are real talents and under the right circumstances I think they really can surprise!
Tags: 2010, cato menkerud, denis giraudet, eyvind brynhildsen, france, french, henning solberg, mountain rally, norway, rally sweden, s-wrc
Posted in National Rallying, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Silly season, WRC | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 11th, 2010
PG Andersson will decide what car to use in Rally Sweden during the day. However, in this weekend’s Sigdalsrally in Norway, PG competed in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX – one of the alternatives he is considering for Sweden. Here is a video from his drive this weekend:
Thanks to femtyfem for the video.
Tags: 2010, mitsubishi lancer evo ix, norway, pg andersson, rally sweden, sigdalsrally, sigdalsrallyt, Video
Posted in National Rallying, Silly season, Video, WRC | No Comments »
Friday, January 8th, 2010
Speaking with WRC.com about his split with co-driver Cato Menkerud, Henning Solberg claims that a girl may partner him in the right seat this season:
- If things work out then I will have a girl in the car with me this year. It will be good for me, and for the sport too – at the moment there are no females competing at this level.
Thinking logically there are not much girls to choose from, as Henning is completely right in that no females are competing at the very highest level in the world. I can only think of two girls that are close enough to Henning to be potential, and they are Veronica Engan and Maria Andersson.
However, Veronica Engan is very less likely than Maria Andersson. Maria just quit her cooperation with Anders Gröndal – and the replacement is noone else than Veronica Engan. It seems unlikely that Veronica would quit after just one rally. But more important, I consider Swede Maria Andersson by far more expecienced. She has been doing a lot of drives in the Production World Rally Championship with Patrik Flodin, one or another WRC drive with Flodin, a season with Gröndal in a WRC car and also one or another WRC drive with George Tracey a few years ago. Besides that, she has partnered Mikkelsen in WRC and Brynhildsen in group N occasionally.
Engan has mostly been doing a group N drives with Brynhildsen, and even though I don’t have her complete record I think that the experience of Andersson makes the choice quite easy. In the end of the day, I can’t imagine that Henning talks of anyone else than Maria Andersson for his WRC challenge 2010 – given that it’s a girl.
Tags: 2010, anders gröndal, cato menkerud, co-driver, codriver, eyvind brynhildsen, girl, henning solberg, maria andersson, patrik flodin, veronica engan, WRC
Posted in National Rallying, Silly season, WRC | 3 Comments »
Friday, January 8th, 2010
Not much have been heard about PG Andersson lately, but in today’s NWT PG says that his drive in the Norweigan Championship round Sigdalsrallyt this weekend (PG made a late entry) will be used to decide if he’s gonna do Rally Sweden in a Super2000 rental car or in his own Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. PG will drive the Mitsubishi in Norway along with co-driver Anders Fredriksson, since his regular co-driver Jonas Andersson is busy at the side of Mads Östberg.
The whole competition will be a test where PG tries wether he can keep the speed up with Eyvind Brynhildsen in his Skoda Fabia Super2000. PG says that renting a Super2000 car costs twice as much as doing the home rally in his own Mitsubishi – and if he can, he will save the money for later:
- I’ve got the money it takes, but if I can do two rallies instead of one for them I would prefer that, says PG.
Besides the start in Rally Sweden, which now seems to be totally confirmed, PG is looking at entering the IRC round Rally Italia Sardinia in June. For that rally he would rent a Super2000 car. However, the first thing after Sigdalsrallyt for PG is to do ice notes for Guy Wilks in Rally Monte Carlo later this month. As I revealed yesterday, Wilks is expected to confirm his agreement with Skoda UK today announcing a drive in the 2010 IRC.
Tags: anders fredriksson, eyvind brynhildsen, gravel notes, guy wilks, ice notes, IRC, jonas andersson, mads östberg, mitsubishi lancer, norweigan championship, pg andersson, rally, rally italia sardinia, rally monte carlo, rally sweden, sigdalsrallyt, skdoa fabia super2000, super2000
Posted in IRC, National Rallying, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Silly season, Swedish Rallying, WRC | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
With two new stars coming into the championship, I thought it would be a fun thing to compare their driving styles – so I found one onboard video of each driver. Ken Block on the Concord Pond stage in the New England Forest Rally 2008 in America driving a Subaru Impreza and Kimi Räikkönen driving the Abarth Grande Punto in WRC Rally Finland 2009 on the Leustu stage.
Compare the driving styles yourself!
Ken Block, Subaru Impreza, New England Forest Rally 2008, Concord Pond stage, onboard:
Kimi Räikkönen, Abarth Grande Punto, WRC Rally Finland 2009, Leustu stage, onboard:
Tags: abarth grande punto, concord pond, driving style, ken block, kimi räikkönen, new england forest rally, onboard, rally finland, s2000, subaru impreza, super 2000, Video, WRC, youtube
Posted in National Rallying, Video, WRC | No Comments »
Friday, December 18th, 2009
Norweigan driver Eyvind Brynhildsen will do S-WRC 2010 in a Skoda Fabia S2000 for Rene Georges Motorsport in Belgium, financially backed by the Norweigan Skoda dealer. Brynhildsen appeared in the Skoda already this year, winning his class in Spain and also competing in Wales. His co-driver from 2009, the highly experienced Denis Giraudet, will also stay with the Norweigan in 2010.
Brynhildsen will start the year by doing the local events Sigdalsrally and Mountain Rally and then continue with the S-WRC season in Sweden, Mexico, Jordan, Portugal, Germany, France and Wales.
Tags: 2010, belgium, denis giraudet, eyvind brynhildsen, france, germany, jordan, mexico, mountain rally, norway, rene georges motorsport, s-wrc, sigdalsrally, skoda fabia super2000, skoda norway, sweden, wales, wrc cup
Posted in National Rallying, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Silly season | No Comments »
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
The TV-coverage of the World Rally Championship in Scandinavia is now officialy in box. The discussions with Viasat has been known for a while, but now is even the formal agreement signed with the promotor, ISC. The agreement covers nothing less than three years of coverage, which means Scandinavian events and teams can now plan their sponsor deals on a longer term.
According to Bertil Klarin, m.d. of Rally Sweden, it means that both the Swedish Championship and the WRC event will get a lot of coverage.
Exact details regarding the coverage of Rally Sweden is not know, but the plan is TV broadcasts for four days during the rally, including live coverage of the Karlstad Super Special Stage in the start of the rally and also the finish at the new, spectacular Värmullsåsen stage in Hagfors.
(Source, in Swedish: SR)
Tags: bertil klarin, coverage, isc, karlstad super special stage, live, motor, rally sweden, scandinavia, swedish championship, tv-coverage, värmullsåsen, viasat, WRC
Posted in National Rallying, Rally promotion and media coverage, Swedish Rallying, WRC | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
F1 stars are invading rallying! At least a little, if Autosport.com are right in their speculations about Heikki Kovalainen in a Proton Satria S2000 car. According to the site, Kovalainen would be in discussions for a drive in the Arctic Rally in Finland in the end of January – the very same rally where Kimi Räikkönen (already confirmed for a full WRC program, except New Zealand, with Citroen Junior Team) will have his premiere and warm up of the C4 WRC preparing for his 2010 WRC challenge. However, much seems to remain before the Kovalainen plan becomes true.
If it does, I wouldn’t complain… Nothing is better for rallying than stars with already big names entering the sport. However, I think Kovalainen would have to watch out – none of the F1 guys will have an easy ride in a brand new car and in a so different sport. Probably they would both be happy not to be in the same class – so they at least don’t have to be compared to each other… 
Tags: 2010, arctic rally, citroen c4 wrc, f1, finland, formula 1, heikki kovalainen, kimi räikkönen, proton satria s2000
Posted in National Rallying, Silly season | No Comments »
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
Daniel Carlsson - South Swedish Rally 2009
Yesterday and today Daniel Carlsson did his rallying comeback in the Swedish Championship, running a Ford Focus WRC05 to seventh place. PG Andersson won the rally just before regular Swedish frontrunner Mats Jonsson.
The rules in the Swedish Championship say that the fastest driver should go first. In this case it meant Daniel Carlsson and then Mats Jonsson. That’s probably why PG beat Jonsson, and since no new seeding is made before day two, Carlsson had to go the whole rally first on the road – filled with loose gravel. But why this seeding? Is Daniel really the fastest driver?
It was more than two years since Carlsson drove a rally last time, and in the meanwhile PG Andersson have done somewhere around 15 WRC events including some top placings. At the same time, Mats Jonsson have won the Swedish Championship and won almost every rally he started in. And if WRC merits count higher, may I ask someone to remind the Swedish organisers that Mats was the total winner of the Swedish Rally in both 1992 and 1993? Anyway, that shouldn’t be necessary – since the Swedish Rally organisation are also organising the Swedish Championship from this year on…
So… Dear organisers of the South Swedish Rally. Please do some argumentation and present some facts that you based your decision on. I don’t care about the result, but it’s an interesting principle where organisers can really affect the outcome of the rally based on making strange decisions.
Tags: daniel carlsson, mats jonsson, pg andersson, seeding, south swedish rally, swedish championship
Posted in General rallying, National Rallying, Swedish Rallying | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
Spent the night yesterday writing the lovely press release about Daniel Carlsson coming back to rallying. I wont tell you the whole story now, but there is so much regarding his mistake and the behaviour by different actors after it that haven’t been discussed in media and that are not really nice stories (at least to those ones involved) if they come out into the light.
One day I’ll take the time to write that story to you guys reading this blog. It isn’t really the time yet, I guess, but it’s certainly coming closer. Until then I’m just really happy about the comeback and the strength Daniel is showing. His mistake was unacceptable, he can’t blame anyone – and he let everyone down. But… He let himself down more than anyone else – and he has been knowing that every day since then. Now he’s back – and just the fact that he makes the comeback is just amazing. Hope the rally makes it even better!
The scene of the comeback will be South Swedish Rally (part of the Swedish Championship) on May 15-16 2009. The car, a Ford Focus WRC05, will be engineered by AP Däckservice Engineering Team in cooperation with the guys at Tätab and Dom Buckley Motorsport.
Read more (in Swedish) at www.danielcarlsson.com
If you don’t speak Swedish and still wonders something, feel free to ask me questions in the comments and I’ll try to answer them!
Tags: ap däckservice engineering team, comeback, daniel carlsson, dom buckley motorsport, ford focus wrc, ford focus wrc05, rally, south swedish rally, swedish championship, tätab
Posted in National Rallying, Silly season, Swedish Rallying, WRC | 1 Comment »
