PG Andersson in his JM Racing Skoda Fabia S2000 on the Karlstad Super Special Stage earlier this month. Photo: Rasmus Bjerén

According to today’s NWT, PG Andersson is hoping for four more appearances in the Skoda Fabia Super2000 this year with the Czech JM Racing team following his superb win in the S2000 class in Sweden. The team is planning to enter six WRC events, and PG is aiming to drive four of them. The other two will probably go to other drivers, where one driver is already planned for Rally Japan.

The rallies PG is planning to enter is Rally Portugal followed by Rally Finland, Rally of France and Wales Rally GB. However, according to NWT, Andersson is still lacking around €200000 of his budget and if he doesn’t manage to get all the money he may skip France or GB.

The previous talks about Rally Sardinia is currently put on ice in favour of the mentioned four events.

According to my sources Mads and his father (also team boss of the Adapta team) had a meeting with MINI representatives during Rally Sweden together with their friends at Prodrive. I have no clue what was said in the meeting (if it really did happen) but I would really like to know

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Thanks to tamayofotos1 for the videos.

PG Andersson on the Friday's super special stage. Nobody in the class had a chance to really challenge PG during the rally. Photo: Rasmus Bjerén

So, I went to Rally Sweden. Actually it was the first WRC rally I have visited without working in one way or another since Rally Sweden 2005. And it was amazing!!!

Here are a few reflections from the rally:

• Petter Solberg was mentally stuck in his pre-rally business. He surprised with a silly mistake already on the super special stage and he continued to do them throughout the weekend. You could virtually hear where it all was going when Petter talked to the Swedish Radio early on Friday and started to talk about his mistake without even being asked. That’s not really the mental approach you need… I had high hopes on Petter for this season – and I hope he can be better prepared and repair the impression in Mexico.
• PG Andersson – give that man a works seat, now! He punished well-established drivers in better cars last year in the Fabia WRC and this year he totally undressed his competitors in the S-WRC class. Unfortunately, not results and neither Star of the Rally-awards can be used to pay bills. PG knows that for sure, and I’m afraid his Swedish fans will have to learn it if they don’t already know. However, I hope PG is lucky and that this opens up some eyes for the rest of the season and 2011!
• Patrik Sandell failed to stand the competition of PG Andersson when given the same car. I’m afraid I can’t say this surprised me – but it’s disappointing to see considering that Sandell has one year experience with the car and two years experience of S2000 compared to PG that sat in the car first time just days before the rally. Sandell’s comments during the rally started to sound very much like excuses – and what else could he say? However, afterwards he has paid his respect to PG’s impressive driving and that’s the kind of sportsmanship I like!
• Patrik Flodin did what he was supposed to do and just delivered – but got totally placed in the shadows by the new S2000 class and PG’s drive. He would have needed a real PR boost – but at least it looks like the winds are warmer back in Russia at the Uspenskiy team. Maybe Flodin can get a few drives or perhaps even the whole PWRC championship this year?

• Kimi Räikkönen and media… Ok – the guy isn’t really a media whore, but honestly… It’s Kimi Räikkönen, what did you expect? And at the same time it’s his personality. Isn’t a little bit about the media interest in Kimi also the interest in the shy, airy Kimi that you can hardly get to speak at all?! I think so, and I think that even a quiet Kimi is a huge boost for the WRC. Just let the guy be and suddenly he will talk…
• Kimi Räikkönen and rally driving… I don’t understand how people can be so disappointed!? After just a few rallies in his career and the second ever WRC rally – what results can you expect? I’m impressed that Kimi reached the finish, considering that he attacked quite OK. Posting multiple stage times withing the top 8 must be considered good for a newbie, no matter how talented he is. I have high hopes for Kimi’s driving!

• Mikko Hirvonen showed that he wants to challenge for the win this year. I hope and actually I also think that he will be up for the challenge this year and able to match Loeb in the charge for the title. He was really close last year and I don’t know if he will make it this year – but I think it will be close. And honestly… How fun wouldn’t it be with a new champion? Mikko has grown from silly mistakes in Subaru in 2004 to a mature driver. He really proved it by taking his own, gambling decisions regarding the setup of the car during the rally. Go Mikko!

• The surface discussion was just ridiculous. Paid drivers complaining about some frozen gravel and even saying it’s not winter conditions?!?! Nothing can be more stupid. This winter has been the coldest since 1986 or more in Sweden and we’ve had snow and sub-zero temperatures since early December in the rally area. Drivers complain because they want easy driving, but as spectators we want difficult driving! What should the WRC really be about if not difficulties?? The team managers understand it, at least, since they say Rally Sweden must stay in the calendar. It was pure winter conditions this year and the drivers just have to accept that winter isn’t synonymous with ice. On top of that the conditions were just perfect for spectators and TV – that in numbers represent the number of competitors multiplied by thousands…

• The media coverage sucked – as we’re used to with North One Sport. The WRC season opener are oceans away from the live coverage of the IRC season opener. Of course it’s difficult – but guys, you need to try at least! Why wasn’t all the super specials and sprints live covered on the web, as well as the Värmullsåsen stage (that was live in Swedish TV)? That should be a piece of cake, at least compared to airing a whole rally live. When will North One start to deliver???
• The Abu Dhabi people indicated that they may need to get better both in understanding rally and in writing press releases. To talk about PG Andersson’s performance as a result of local knowledge and home support sounds more like an insult than an award to me considering his earlier performances on the international arena?! His two J-WRC titles and his performance in the lousy Suzuki SX4WRC in 2008 is good proof that this isn’t about being some kind of snow expert. PG Andersson is one of the world’s best drivers, and to not give him that recognition cannot be called an award.
• The Rally Sweden organisers have had a really hard time almost totally out of money. They had some luck with the weather, but they also managed to do a really good rally despite the resources that has been a lot more limited than ever before (in “modern time”). World class!

The junction where a LOT of people went off (a bit into the movie):

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Hirvonen and Loeb challenging on Colin’s Crest (Vargåsen):

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Kimi Räikkönen crashing on Sågen:

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Stunning onboard with Mikko Hirvonen on Vargåsen:

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First day video:

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Second day video:

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Third day video:

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Thanks to eslake123, MadCowYuuko, TwitChii, Sdimm, nedbis and milkowsky for the videos.

• Patrik Flodin with co-driver Göran Bergsten met a car on the recce today and had to push their car off road. They stood off road for an hour before being able to continue.
• Co-driver Göran Bergsten told that the roads today were a looot better than the cars they drove yesterday. Even Anders Gröndal seems to be of the same opinion, looking at his blog…
• The drivers doing the shakedown gets four extra tyres.

Rally Sweden scrutineering in Karlstad. Photo: Mikael Hjerpe

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Thanks to Hedlund80 for the videos.

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Even Swedish Skoda Fabia Super2000 driver P-A Sääv has been testing recently, in the local rally Vinternatta and on private tests. Today his tests go on together with PG Andersson. Here is a video of him in Vinternatta:

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Some of Sandell's new livery exposed at the successful test in Norway. Photo: James Holms

Patrik Sandell with co-driver Emil Axelsson have spent the day testing on snow in Norway with their car for the 2010 season, the Red Bull Skoda Fabia Super2000.

Sandell himself said at the test:

- We’re doing just fine. It was good to do a rally in Norway last weekend, so we didn’t have to start at zero now. We are doing some small adjustments to the dampers to find the right setup for Rally Sweden, but the feeling is really good. Since it has snowed so much this winter the roads will be narrower than in 2008, which will make the speed go down. However, it will still be a fast rally so we chose a fast test road to see have the Skoda behaves in full speed bends.

Patrik, who will drive in the new S-WRC / WRC Cup class, continues:

- The competition in the rally will be the best we have ever met. PG is driving exactly the same car on a wild card and will be incredibly fast, so he will probably be our biggest challenge. But even Prokop and Tuohino will be there fighting for the points, he concludes.

PG Andersson's car at today's test. Photo: pgandersson.se

As the header says, a lot of last minute testing is going on for Rally Sweden… On the list is local ace P-A Sääv that will do the rally in his privately owned and newly bought Skoda Fabia Super2000. Together with him, PG Andersson will do tests with his Skoda Fabia Super2000 that has now arrived in Sweden. At the same time as PG and Sääv is testing their Fabias, Patrik Sandell is doing tests with the Red Bull Rally Team today over in Norway…

PG Andersson's car without stripes in the garage after arrival.

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

Download the list here

The new target for 2010 is likely to be S-WRC and the Super2000 class. The team reckons that they won’t be able to get a Ford or Citroen car, and I guess they consider S2000 a good warm-up for the 2011 WRC1.6T regulations. The team hopes to have a Super2000 alternative ready for Rally Jordan in the beginning of April.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we got another Fiesta in the S-WRC from Rally Jordan on…

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Thanks to Zagatio for the video.

PG himself, who makes his debut in the class, says:

- It will really be fun to test this class – and especially on my home soil.

Now, we have an even more interesting fight to look forward to in group N with Andersson, Sandell, Brynhildsen, Mikkelsen, Prokop among others. My guess is that this will be the closest and most intense fight in the rally, with a lot of young guys wanting to win like nobody else.

PG Andersson’s group N wildcard has been given to Jocke Nyman – and PG will get a new wildcard from the organisers for the S-WRC instead. His car will be managed by Czech company JM Racing.

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!

Here is the video:

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Thanks to poupondu34400 for the video.

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Thanks to Stephdu07 for the video.

Also S2000 will be interesting to follow, where home ace Patrik Sandell will be hunted by skilled drivers as Mikkelsen, Brynhildsen, Prokop and Tuohino. Also Solowow, Sousa and Hunt and heavily experienced home ace Per-Arne Sääv, running on the organizers wild card, are entered in S2000 cars.

My current most interesting list (to be updated, for sure!):

• Loeb vs. Hirvonen + Latvala
• Petter vs. Henning
• How fast can Grönholm and Räikkönen be?
• What happens to the Swede superfight in group N: Andersson + Flodin + Nyman?
• The Super2000 superfight: Sandell vs. Mikkelsen + Brynhildsen + Prokop + Tuohino

Every single one of the points above will probably be world class entertainment – and of course I’ll get back with more comments, interviews etc. related to the entries. This is just the start…!

Read the full entrylist here

- I will do the rally in my own Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. I’ve been testing and discussing with them all, Skoda, Ford, Peugeot… Everyone. But in the end, price the made the decision…  There still is a small chance that it will be another Evo IX, a brand new one. But it’s not very likely…

Price has been a big factor to PG when deciding – and that’s no big surprise. Talking on the prices of a Super2000 car, PG says that the price level has now reached where WRC was five years ago, which means around €100 000 per rally. A start in his own car makes PG save half the money for later…

Andersson will do the rally with co-driver Anders Fredriksson, who also sat alongside him in this weekend’s Sigdalsrally in Norway. The duo will probably perform a test the weekend before the rally – and the next few weeks PG will spend on rebuilding the car to get it in good shape. Talking on his chances in the rally, Andersson doesn’t say much:

- I don’t know what my chances are. I hope to be able to keep up to speed with some of the Super2000 guys, but it will be hard to go as fast as someone like Mikkelsen, for example. We’ll see…

Even if rallying nowadays is very much about money, a crucial thing for a driver like PG – a clear talent that is without a contract – is to be seen and get PR. Going into the season it seems like S-WRC will take a role of “mini WRC” as it’s the upcoming big class for next year (and despite the until now weak entry list for the S-WRC championship), and that it will therefore render some extra interest from media. The production car championship will therefore probably be even more in the shadows than before. Asking PG about what he thinks about that, he says:

- It’s all about scoring results – as always – but yes, it seems like the PWRC wont get much attention. However, hasn’t it been like that for the last few years? It’s compareable to the JWRC that rendered some interest during the first years when I drove, but it has then fallen and become more and more hidden…

Regarding the rest of the season, PG confirms that he is looking at Sardinia and that it now looks a bit better for the rest of the season than it did earlier. He also says that he has the budget neccessary to do both events, but it’s still not at all certain that he will enter the Italian IRC round. So, for us fans we’ll just need to have patience, hope for a good result for PG in Rally Sweden and then we’ll see!

Besides Petter’s entry, the list contains no big surprises. However, Polish driver Michal Solowow is entered in a Peugeot 207 S2000 – something that has been rumoured but as far as I know not confirmed until now. A lot of names should still come in the entry list – the time expires tomorrow at 15PM local time for WRC entries.

Read the current entry list here (external link)

Tomorrow is the final day for entries to Rally Sweden, and a lot of things should conclude during today and tomorrow. One of the things expected to be announced today is the car for local driver and rally wildcard PG Andersson. As I have previously reported, he is currently considering wether to go for his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX in group N or a rental Super2000 car.

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.

Patrik Sandell is confirmed in Red Bull Rally Team and the Skoda Fabia Super2000, Photo: Red Bull Rally Team

As I revealed already in December, Patrik Sandell with his co-driver Emil Axelsson will do the S-WRC in 2010 with Red Bull Skoda. Patrik himself tells:

- I’m very pleased to be able to drive for the BRR team again this year. It’s a very professional team, and I very much enjoy working with them. I believe they are the best. We will be able to build upon last year’s experience and progress accordingly. The target can only be the SWRC title!

Also Raimund Baumschlager, team manager, is optimistic and reveals that there will be an updated version of the Skoda Fabia Super2000 in the summer this year, called Evo2. He claims that the Fabia is a winning car and looks forward to the battle even more as Ford enters the scene with their Fiesta this year.

The team will start testing for Rally Sweden already next week, and will then drive seven events in the S-WRC calendar.
I will get back later with an interview with Patrik himself.

Red Bull Rally Team, Patrik Sandell / Emil Axelsson, calendar 2010:

February 12th – 14th Sweden
April 2nd – 4th Jordan
May 7th – 9th New Zealand
July 30th – August 1st Finland
August 20th – 22nd Germany
October 1st – 3rd France
November 12th – 14th Great Britain

Flodin admits that times are tough, but still shows a glimpse of optimism:

- Currently I’ve got nothing to announce. For a full WRC or IRC campaign it looks dark, but I’m trying to get together a start in Rally Sweden and then we’ll see. Nothing is decided about the car, but I’m looking at renting a Subaru or Mitsubishi grp N. I’ve got some local sponsors onboard but nothing is finalised with the big ones.

Even though a larger programme looks dark to the Swede, he underlines that things may happen later in the season. Many drivers are switching for IRC, but Flodin is still looking primarily for the World Championship:

- I’d like to do the World Rally Championship, and the dream would be a Super2000 car… The new class [S-WRC / WRCCup] would be perfect for me.

So, I guess we just have to wish Patrik good luck and hope we’ll see him in Rally Sweden and more rallies during the year.

In Hamar Dagblad, the young Norweigan says that his goal is to win the IRC this year, have a works seat in 2011 and win the WRC in 2012. A tough goal, if you ask me – but why not?

Patrik Sandell, photo: redbullrally.com

According to the local Swedish website Zport, Patrik Sandell is currently doing final negotiations with Red Bull and Skoda about a drive in the 2010 S-WRC. The Swede says that he “hopes” that everything will work out before the last entry date on the 4th of January. However, he doesn’t seem too worried – since he has just left for a vacation in Thailand. I think we’ll see Patrik in the Skoda, questions is just what they’re waiting for…? I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a 2 car team from Red Bull next year.

Ford Fiesta Super2000, Photo: MSport

Andreas Mikkelsen is close to seal a deal for 2010, most probably in the Ford Fiesta Super2000. However, according to NRK the young Norweigan is also talking to Skoda – so nothing is for sure. What seems to be totally sure is that Mikkelsen will start in Rally Sweden in February, and it seems that he is aiming to do the S-WRC championship. Nothing is known about any IRC participation, but my guess is that Mikkelsen will stick with only S-WRC. The Norweigan treats 2010 as another year-in-between (2009 was his first) and expects to be back in full power in 2011 able to expect even the top guns of rallying, where he mentions Loeb and Solberg as the men to beat.

I’m not sure if I believe he will be able to challenge those guys in 2011 no matter how big differences there are on the 1.6T-cars compared to today’s WRC cars – but for sure Mikkelsen has all chances to do a good season this year if he get’s a good car. Let’s wait and see…

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Thanks to rallyelange.

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.

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Thanks to rallyelange for the video.