Despite not getting to the finish, PG Andersson made a fantastic performance in Rally Norway a week ago. PG himself told me before the event that he would be really satisfied with a fifth or sixth place. Now he didn’t finish at all, but he took two spectacular stage wins on Friday afternoon – outpacing the world’s best drivers in a car (Skoda Fabia WRC) no one expected to be even close to competitive compared to the Citroen C4WRC or the Ford Focus.
I called PG on Thursday this week, when he was back home in Sweden – and he seemed happy with his result:
- It went really well as long as it lasted, better than we could ever imagine. We intended to be fifth or sixth in the end and hoped to set some medium-good stagetimes, but we didn’t even dream about two stage wins.
So, what was behind this super-performance? Rumours talk about a Czech mechanic making some kind of dream changes on PG’s car in the service before the second loop of the day, but PG play down the importance of any changes made. He was instead worried going into the second loop, since everyone expected the late runners in the field to have a good advantage over Loeb, Hirvonen and the other early starters in the morning loop – something that didn’t happen. This meant, PG feared being beaten even more going into the afternoon:
- We made a few small changes in the setup in the mid-day break. A small change on the timing in the gear-switch and a few clicks on the rear dampers – but that was in fact just because I had to put in two spare wheels. The big difference was that the surface seemed to match the car better in the second loop and I felt more comfortable. I had started to trust Anders (Fredriksson, stand-in co-driver) totally and I attacked more, keeping better lines and getting more flow.
So, what happened making you have to retire? People have talked about you being off prior to the retirement…
- The clutch broke down, but it had nothing to do with an off. I just touched a snow-bank a while before, but that was on the right hand side and the clutch is to the left, those things had nothing to do with each other. The surroundings of the clutch keeping it in place on the gearbox broke - even though it was made of titanium! It worked for a short while but then the whole clutch broke out of the axis, and it was finished… Actually we still don’t really know why.
Was it a big disappointment?
- For sure it was a disappointment to retire, but fact is that we had already achieved the most important – the stage wins. Even if we would have finished fifth or sixth, the talk would be about the stage wins – not the final result.
Going into the rally PG told me that after this event all his money was spent, and that he had no further plans. The sad reality have been shown too many times now, that good performances doesn’t at all have to pay off in the WRC of today. So, even though I was pessimistic – I couldn’t wait to ask PG if any new offers had came:
- Team bosses aren’t really chasing with paper and pencil to sign their contracts and there’s no point in even listening to those ones wanting millions from me to drive. But of course it’s better as it is now, to have showed my name in the top. Maybe the world will change and get a little bit more attractive to drivers, and then I’m there. The situation is much better than sitting at home being ice cold on the market…
So, there are no plans for the future?
- Actually Kongsrud (Bernhard Kongsrud, owner of the Fabia) wants me to drive in the Numedalsrallyt running the 7th of March in Norway. So as it looks now, I may be there with the Skoda!
