Archive for the ‘S-WRC / WRC Cup’ Category
Monday, February 8th, 2010
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.
Tags: norway, pa sääv, patrik sandell, per-arne sääv, pg andersson, rally sweden, red bull rally, s2000, skoda fabia super2000
Posted in Rally testing, S-WRC / WRC Cup | No Comments »
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 »
Monday, January 18th, 2010
Rally Sweden publishes their seeded entry list draft on their website. Among the surprises are Frederic Sauvan in a Ford Focus WRC07 and Juho Hänninen in a Skoda Fabia Super2000, the later of the two set to improve the battle in the S2000 class even further.
Download the list here
Tags: 2010, entry list, ford focus wrc, frederic sauvan, juho hänninen, rally sweden, skoda fabia super2000, swedish rally, uddeholm swedish rally
Posted in IRC, S-WRC / WRC Cup, WRC | 2 Comments »
Sunday, January 17th, 2010
After a disastrous season in 2009, the Norweigan Adapta World Rally Team looks set to leave the Subaru brand behind. Mads Östberg has said that he has never liked the Subaru Impreza WRC S14 – and for Rally Sweden it looks like he’ll be back in the team’s older Impreza S12B. However, after that – Adapta may have done their last rally with Subaru.
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…
Tags: 1.6t, 2010, 2011, adapta world rally team, ford fiesta super2000, mads östberg, ostberg, rally jordan, s-wrc, s12b, s14, s2000, subaru impreza wrc, super2000, wrc1.6t
Posted in S-WRC / WRC Cup, Silly season, WRC | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Mikko Hirvonen has carried out testing for Rally Monte Carlo during the 12th-14th of January. Here is a video of the tests with quite varying conditions, from light snow to heavy snow, snowfall and darkness.
Thanks to Zagatio for the video.
Tags: darkness, ford fiesta super2000, mikko hirvonen, rally monte carlo, s2000, snow, test, testing, Video
Posted in IRC, Rally testing, S-WRC / WRC Cup, WRC | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
PG did the right thing and changed his mind: He goes for the Skoda Fabia Super 2000 in Rally Sweden. Already when the entries for the rally closed, PG told that he was still talking to Skoda via e-mail – but he still insisted that he was almost certain to drive the Mitsubishi in his home round. However, now he has changed his mind and comes to start in a brand new Skoda Fabia Super2000 – and then becomes an immediate favourite to win the Super2000 race and the N4 class.
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.
Tags: jm racing, pg andersson, rally sweden, s-wrc, s2000, skoda fabia super2000, swrc
Posted in S-WRC / WRC Cup, Silly season, WRC | 2 Comments »
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 »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Heavy Peugeot 207 S2000 tests were going on last week with both Kronos Racing and PH Sport. The first three days of the week in the snow of Col du Galibier and the last two days in Bourget du Lac, with just slightly dryer conditions. During the days, Stephane Sarrazin (fr), Bruno Magalhaes (pt) and Kris Meeke (uk) – all entering the Rally Monte Carlo later this month – tested the car.
Here is the video:
Thanks to poupondu34400 for the video.
Tags: 2010, bourget du lac, bruno magalhaes, col du galibier, kris meeke, kronos racing, peugeot 207 super2000, ph sport, rally monte carlo, stephane sarrazin, test0 rally, Video
Posted in IRC, Rally testing, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Video | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Mikko Hirvonen has been on the run again testing for the upcoming Rally Monte Carlo in Ardeche, France. Here is a video from the test that took place today:
Thanks to Stephdu07 for the video.
Tags: ardeche, ford fiesta super2000, france, mikko hirvonen, rally, rally monte carlo, s2000, test, Video
Posted in IRC, Rally testing, S-WRC / WRC Cup, Video | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
The Rally Sweden organisers have updated the entry list on their website, and now it’s starting to look like something. Henning Solberg seems to get his pieces together and is entered in a Ford Focus WRC08, Jocke Nyman completes a three man (PG Andersson, Patrik Flodin and Jocke Nyman) strong Swedish lineup that will hopefully conquer the group N class of the rally and Al-Qassimi, Kuipers x2, van Merksteijn x2, Grönholm and Therman, Jouni Arolainen, Mads Östberg, Kimi Räikkönen, Matthew Wilson among others making the WRC class a real nest will hopefully assure that the rally comes down to history as one of the best snow rallies in a long time.
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
Tags: andreas mikkelsen, entrylist, eyvind brynhildsen, group n, henning solberg, janne tuohino, jari-matti latvala, jocke nyman, kimi räikkönen, marcus grönholm, martin prokop, mikko hirvonen, patrik flodin, petter solberg, pg andersson, rally sweden, s2000, sebastien loeb, super2000
Posted in S-WRC / WRC Cup, Silly season, Swedish Rallying, WRC | 3 Comments »
