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.

The scene of today's accident - just seconds before it happened

The rally sport is in chock after a tragic accident today in Czech republic, where three people spectating the Valašska rally where killed. The driver of the car, the 21 year old Lapdavský from Slovakia was seriously injured and chocked. I don’t know what happened and why – and I don’t really want to speculate in it. What I do know is that the turn  should for sure be a forbidden zone and that signs or barriers should point out that to the spectators.

Generally talking, I think that the safety in the rally sport is very well maintained. Organisers put safety highest on the agenda and spectators are most often very well informed about forbidden zones, there are marshals placed in dangerous places and safety cars and sometimes helicopters secures the stage just before it gets started so noone is standing in dangerous positions. Considering driver/co-driver safety, cars are improving continually, and much of the safety evolvement in road cars is also driven by data and tests made in rally cars. One should remember that most rally cars are built on the same chassi as road cars and driven on common roads – closed for traffic. This means that comparisons against road traffic is made quite easy – much easier than in track racing where big zones around the track is used to make off-road excursions less dangerous.

So, whats the main problem with rally safety? With all respect to the ones involved in this certain accident of today, I must say that it is spectators not willing to follow the instructions given by organisers, marshals and other spectators.

Everyone going to a rally wants spectacular experiences, high speeds and some of them also wants to see cars go off. Going off the road is a part of rallying, and doesn’t at all mean that people want anyone to get hurt. But it is a problem that some people doesn’t follow marshals (or other spectators) instructions and therefore stand in dangerous places. I don’t know anything about the instructions in the Valasska rally, but looking at the photo just for one second tells me that there is a clear and present danger to the life of anyone standing in that zone during a rally – no doubt about it. This is also confirmed by the movie (see below) where anyone can see how extremely fast the accident happens. I can hardly believe that they hadn’t been warned by marshals or other spectators at the scene.

Many people have too high expectations on their ability to get out of a spot if a driver lose control. Speeds often doesn’t look so fast, but when something happens – you most often haven’t even reacted before the car is way off the road. I’ve seen quite some accidents myself – luckily without any serious injuries involved – and your best chance is that the driver can avoid you and at least choose exactly the spot where he goes off. However, since an accident is by it’s nature never intended, that may not be the case. So, to anyone out there – make sure to always use your brain, follow instructions, keep some extra safety margin and instruct your fellow spectators to do the same! That’s the smallest thing we can do to show our respect to those ones involved in todays accident.

Watch a video of the accident here:

Read more here (news articles):

http://www.dn.se/sport/otack-rallyolycka-i-tjeckien-1.832640 (in Swedish)

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!