Posts Tagged ‘eyvind brynhildsen’
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Here are a few photos from the scrutineering this evening. All photos are taken by Mikael Hjerpe, big thanks to him!
P-A Sääv's Skoda Fabia S2000 in scrutineering.
Eyvind Brynhildsen's Skoda Fabia S2000 in scrutineering.
Car's waiting for scrutineering outside Svensk Bilprovning in Karlstad.
Mads Östberg's Subaru Impreza WRC.
Patrik Flodin's Subaru.
Patrik Flodin himself...
Journalists and drivers waiting at the scrutineering.
Tags: eyvind brynhildsen, mads östberg, p-a sääv, patrik flodin, photos, rally sweden, s2000, scrutineering, skoda fabia super2000, subaru, subaru impreza wrc
Posted in S-WRC / WRC Cup, Swedish Rallying, WRC | 1 Comment »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
The excellent Norweigan site Motorsport.no quotes Eyvind Brynhildsen in an interview where the young Norweigan states that it’s more difficult to become World Champion in the P-WRC than in the WRC. For sure I get his point about the P-WRC having more competitors able to challenge for wins, but I certainly doubt that Mikko Hirvonen or any other top WRC drivers would agree with him on the rest. Until the WRC loses the world’s by far best rally driver, Sebastien Loeb, quotes like that should be handled with care in my opinion.
Another interesting note from Norway is that Petter Solberg loses one of his main sponsors, the John Lunde Marine group. The company made a loss of 90.3M NOK last year, so why they had to pull the plug to their sponsorship seems quite obvious. However, I hope and I think that Petter has a good plan.
Tags: eyvind brynhildsen, john lunde marine, norway, p-wrc, petter solberg, pwrc, rally, sebastien loeb, sponsor, world champion, WRC
Posted in Silly season, WRC | 1 Comment »
Friday, February 13th, 2009
Flodin went off the road on SS5 in Norway – destroying the rally not only for himself but even for Brynhildsen. When Brynhildsen arrived at the scene short after, a lot of people is reported to have been blocking the road so badly that Brynhildsen had to steer into the ditch not to cause a serious accident.
Spectator safety is a of highest priority to every organiser, but this problem is common. I’ve seen it myself many times. As soon as a car goes off the road, people not only go to help – they go crazy. Everyone should remember that the stage is running and that new cars may arrive at any time. The most dangerous thing often seems to be that people expect it to be 2 (or 1, depending on class) minutes between every car – not thinking about the fact that one car may have overtaken one other etc.
I’ve seen people getting really surprised many times, and I’m afraid it may cause a serious accident one day. Today, it just destroyed Brynhildsens rally…
UPDATE 21:43: Now even VG writes about this problem. Marshals mean they warned Brynhildsen, while Brynhildsen himself and spectators say he wasn’t warned in time. On Saturday it will be decided if Brynhildsen gets an ideal time as a compensation for the mess-up. Read more (Norweigan): http://www.vg.no/sport/motor/artikkel.php?artid=558349
Tags: accident, dangerous, eyvind brynhildsen, patrik flodin, rally, spectator safety
Posted in General rallying, WRC | No Comments »
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
The group N-class in Norway is a real nest of wasps. Brynhildsen, Mikkelsen, Flodin, and Sandell competes (almost for the Swedes) on home soil and are all strong competitors for the class victory. The not-some-home Arai is also – and Prokop was – until he got a penalty today (I don’t know why, but speeding on recce or replacing engine may be the reason), so he’s quite out of the game. Competing in group N is a high game, and in one way I think the pressure is higher there than in the WRC.
Why?
Because in WRC you get seen – even if you’re in 5th place. Group N is downprioritized in media and in the eyes of many spectators, so there is only one way to be seen there – to win. That’s the only thing that matters. Of course all WRC competitors also wants to win, but if you’re in top eight (=points) – you’ve still made a quite good achievement and people will probably remember your name for a while.
So, Brynhildsen, Mikkelsen, Flodin and Sandell may all be nervous – and they should be.
The winner takes it all!
Tags: andreas mikkelsen, eyvind brynhildsen, group n, patrik flodin, patrik sandell, production car, pwrc, rally norway
Posted in WRC | 1 Comment »
