On the bright side of the rally, Petter Solberg holds the lead after the first day with around 15 seconds over Citroen Junior driver Sebastien Ogier. Will we see Petter winning a rally for the first time in many years? That would be amazing!

Here is Kimi’s off:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to motorstvfrance for the video.

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!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to Petter himself and mijn400 for the videos.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Petter Solberg's car during service while testing in Sweden on Sunday. Photo: PSWRT

Petter Solberg, who has previously done both tests and a few test rallys (Svully Rally Dahbi in Norway and Finnskogsvalsen in Sweden) during the recent weeks, tested his Citroën C4WRC in Sweden once again yesterday. In a short post on his blog Petter said that driving the car was good fun and that it’s really fast. Today Petter is probably checking in for the rally and tomorrow starts the recce that will take place during Tuesday and Wednesday.

Petter Solberg on the start ramp of Svully Rally Dahbi today. Photo: PSWRT

The Norweigan Svully Rally Dahbi were ran today, and as expected Petter Solberg won the rally with a huge margin to second placed Marcus Grönholm. However, as the rally primarily was an interesting test for the upcoming Rally Sweden – some things were more interesting than the end results:

• Solberg, who sealed a sponsorship agreement with energy drink Mad-Croc earlier this week, were happy with the car and had adjusted settings that made him even more comfortable with the Citroen C4 WRC than last weekend in Sweden.
• Marcus Grönholm won the fight over both Mikkelsen and Sandell – all running in Subaru Impreza group N cars, were Grönholm had the oldest one of them. However, the battle between Mikkelsen and Sandell were quite close despite Mikkelsen being the one most used to his car. That is interesting since Mikkelsen is often considered more of a “raw talent” than Sandell.
• Swedish young shot Pontus Tidemand were impressive managing to keep up the speed with Patrik Sandell and finishing just 1.2 secs behind. There you can talk about a raw talent, and I’d be surprised if we don’t see Pontus in the international arena within a few years!

A strange thing though is that PG Andersson has been named as an entrant in many places, including on http://www.svullyrallydahbi.no, that seems like the rally’s official website. However, PG has told Swedish media that he will be a zero car driver in Swedish Bergslagsrallyt the very same day, that he will not start in Norway and that he has never entered the event (and don’t know why he has been named as an entrant). Strange?!?!

It will be nice to see how the event will be when it’s run. And while we’re waiting for that to happen, I’ll keep on wondering about the owners of the rally. Dahbi makes me think of Abu Dhabi, a name that has been appearing often in the World Rally Championship since a few years. And through a few questions on Google, you can find out that there is a British company registered in London called “Svully Rally Dahbi Limited”. And, if I don’t get it totally wrong (which I may do…) – this British company owns 100% of the stocks in a Norweigan company, led by Even Wiger (m.d. of Rally Norway), with the very same name. It’s not a big thing, but I just wonder why there is a company registered in the UK at all, if the owners would be just Norweigans?! Since I love to speculate, I now guess that some other guys are involved in this as owners, potentially some rich men from Abu Dhabi… However, if so – one question remains. Why can’t they spell Dahbi correct? That seems quite embarassing…

End of speculation. Over and out!

If more movies of Petter in Finnskogsvalsen appear later, they’ll be added to this post – so check back for latest.

NEW! Video with service and some action shots.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to bakkis2 for this video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to cnygge for the video.

Driving on SS2:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The interview:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Quotes from Petter’s interview:

• “This is most a way to test on many stages and get back to the feeling again”
• “I have one goal this year, and that is to beat Sebastien Loeb. I’m a privateer now and that’s tough, many people probably regard it impossible, but I will try my best and I have a 2009 spec car that should be at least almost the same as the one Loeb will drive. I will do my workouts,eat good and try to get more testing than Sebastien. He will do 15 test days this year, so I have planned 26.”
• Asked on the differences between Petter’s car and the 2010 Citroen works car, Petter says: “Sebastiens gearbox is 4 kg lighter than mine. I could get it, but it would cost me 8M NOK (ca €912.000) more, so I thought I’ll have to lose 4 kg’s myself instead.”
• Talking on when Petter left Subaru, he says: “I had a good time with Subaru and we had many good years, but it came a time without that right philosophy, and then you’ll have to do something. They’ll probably come back some time – but when you don’t fight to win anymore you can’t do anything else [than leaving]. Now it’s Citroen and times have changed, but that’s life. It changes and you can just look forward.”
• “The Citroen and the Ford is very similar cars, but I have a feeling the Citroen is better. Especially since this year’s WRC has many asphalt rallies, where the Citroen is clearly better.”
• “I have one team in Torsby and one in France. The French team is currently preparing my other car for Mexico, and it will be loaded on the containers on Monday. At the same time, Pernilla is working on clothes and other things. Everyone in this team is working all around the day now, very hard.”
• “This is the life of my family and also my wife Pernilla’s family. We all want to win and we’ll try to do it…”

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

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to Hedlund80 for the videos.

Petter Solberg testing outside Torsby in Sweden today. Photo: PSWRT

Petter Solberg tested his Citroën C4WRC today outside Torsby – and had really fun according to himself. From the reports I’ve heard, Petter is satisfied with the car, but of course there are things left to tweak. Good then that Petter has hired Francois “Fx” Demaison full time this year as an engineer, so they can sort things out…

Tomorrow Petter will start the local rally Finnskogsvalsen as an extended test – around 90 km’s of competitive stages on old Rally Sweden roads. It will be really interesting to hear Petters impressions after that test!

Petter Solberg is testing his Citroen C4WRC near Torsby in Värmland today. Photo: PSWRT

Petter Solberg just updated his blog with the following quote:

- Just did the first run, and this car is just unbelieveable! It’s totally different from the car I had last year. I mean, the balance is so good and the grip is amazing. Just one thing to say now; Rally Sweden – here I come!

It’s interesting to see that Petter is so happy immediately, since it means that he maybe really have managed to get the right stuff out of the Citroën factory – something that almost no privateer has previously managed to do. Citroën have always been very keen of protecting their works drivers from concurrence by providing engine mappings and parts that has obviously been not as good as the works stuff. Ask Petter about last year, Manfred Stohl, Daniel Carlsson and many other people…

If Petter has the right stuff – he can finally become a contender again and maybe be one of the guys on top in the championship. That would be an amazing boost to the WRC. However, still that’s just dreams, but let’s hope for more good reports from Petter.

Here is an extract from the entry list in the rally:

Click here for the full entry list for Finnskogsvalsen

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

Solberg expects to have his budget complete in the end of next week, and announce his team and sponsors after that. Until then, read todays announcement here.

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)

First off, the safe names are Federico Villagra in Munchis WRT, Ken Block in Monster WRT, Petter Solberg in Solberg PSWRT – and the almost safe (?) Matthew Wilson in Stobart WRT. So far no problem. But then comes Henning Solberg as expected in Stobart – and that’s a little bit more uncertain. I know that Henning targets a seat in the WRC again, but I also know that this very much depends on a renewed contract with Expert for 2010. The second questionmark is Gigi Galli and PG Andersson – where one of them or even both are said to be joining the PSWRT. I know nothing about Galli, but when it comes to PG I know he was in discussions regarding the PSWRT early this autumn – but then he has announced that he probably can’t collect the money needed. I’ll get back with a small post on PG’s future later today.

So, it would be really intersting to know what facts are behind the article. If Evans get three right out of three on the uncertain things, it would be like heaven to any rally addict. I guess the future will show…

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.

Besides good tendencies on the coverage, the competition has really seen a boost this year. Of course I’m much thinking of the superb performance of Mikko Hirvonen, who managed to maintain really thrilling competition until the very last round of the WRC. It was quite a few years since we saw that – and no matter what happens in 2010, we know that 2011 will be a hell of a year when all the current drivers will need to adapt to new cars – the WRC1.6T spec.

Also, Petter’s new team has been a great success. He hasn’t been on the top of the podium, but honestly noone expected that – especially not in the Xsara (I’ve written a lot about this, for example: Xsara WRC – Petter’s smart disappointment). But what does that matter? In the media and on the TV coverage, Petter has been a regular and his new team has been a good injection to the championship. I’m the first one to admit I’m impressed by what he has put together!

So, that’s just a few of the highlights in 2009, but to sum it up everybody expected a middle-year – and in many aspects it was. But it was also a starting point where the championship reached it’s bottom somewhere in the shift 2008-2009, and then a lot of good things started to happen.

For 2010 I’m looking forward to having Kimi Räikkönen in rallying. Of course he will struggle a bit before he starts to set really decent results, but his star-quality is exactly what the WRC needs. We must admit that even if Loeb may be the best driver in the world to us, a Formula 1 driver attracts 10 times the coverage. Let’s hope that Kimi succeeds to such an amount that he decides to stay in rallying. Actually, I’d be surprised if we wouldn’t see him back in 2011…

In 2010, we will also see the comeback of Marcus Grönholm for a one time outing in Sweden – that will rock. Added to that, FIA has started the S-WRC championship for Super2000 cars. I guess this isn’t ground-breaking, but it’s a good thing to help some drivers keep their names up until 2011 – when they can compete (with money and skills) about a WRC1.6T seat. At the same time, IRC will probably go for a new all time high this year, as I’m sure many drivers will take the chance to do the same thing there.

Well, that’s a few good points looking back at 2009 and forward to 2010. I’ve left a lot out, I know that, so feel free to add your highlights and thoughts in the comments. As always, it’s much about money. We need to get even the good drivers into the WRC1.6T in 2011, not just the rich ones. All kinds of coverage must get better, and let’s hope that we get to see effects such as the Meeke-effect in GB after his superb IRC performance in more countries.  In total, I think a lot of steps has been taken this year to allow for that. 2010 may be the second year-in-between and a start of the climb up, so let’s use it to start even more good things to make the sport better. I think the future of rallying is bright, and it will start for real in 2011…

My opinion is that getting PG into a good team in the WRC and with a mentor such as Petter would be really great and that is of course big news. However, one should remember that the amount of money still missing  is huge, and from what I know it forms around half of the budget of a Super2000 season. This means that the news is still just half a seat and there is a long way to go.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that PG and Petter get everything well together!

If Petter doesn’t get fresh parts of the Xsara the car isn’t good enough for him to be happy, and if he does get fresh parts the car+driver mix is way too good for Citroen’s taste.

As soon as Petter got his new gear in Sardinia, Loeb was forced behind Solberg in fourth place. For sure Loeb had some bad luck, but without Petter he would get six points instead of five… I’m sure the Citroen bosses are worried that Petter will steal more points from Loeb and more important from the manufacturer team later this year.

As I see it, there are two main scenarios that are really simple:

• Scenario one, Citroën accepts Petter’s speed and the fact that he may take a few points away of Loeb, Sordo and the junior team (the effect on the junior team is small, as they normally aren’t good enough to pass Petter even with his old gear) during the rest of the year. They let him have the 2006 parts, a good engine mapping and the passive differentials – that all allow him to be fast. (The parts are already given to him, and it will be hard to take them away – but Citroen are still able to give him a weaker engine mapping to make him go slower…)
• Scenario two, Citroen think they cannot afford Petter to be fast with his Xsara, and they reduce his chances of a win by not giving him any further upgrades and by making changes to his engine mapping. However, I’m sure Petter wouldn’t accept that (PSWRT and cheif engineer Fx Demaison are probably staring like eagles on the performance of the engine after the turns with Citroen), and I’m quite sure they he want to see continous progress on the car – otherwise they’ll leave Citroen for Ford or possibly even the Peugeot 307 (read more here and here).

I think the decision for scenario one or two will be done partly by Petter’s feeling in Sardinia, if he’s happy enough or not – but also by Loeb’s and Sordo’s pace in the next few rallies. If the Citroen management see Ford getting closer in the race for the manufacturers title, I’m quite sure they won’t allow Petter to continue taking points away from them. However, if Loeb remains unthreatened for the drivers title and if Citroen can keep their distance in the manufacturers championship, maybe it’s OK. Citroen have probably already got used to the fact that their juniors aren’t able to beat Petter more than on random occasions…

The future will tell…

UPDATE:
Read more (in Norweigan) about Petter’s performance in Sardinia on the following (external) links:

http://www.dagsavisen.no/sport/article417284.ece
http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/05/24/sport/motorsport/rally/rally-vm/petter_solberg/6374198/ 
http://www.vg.no/sport/motor/artikkel.php?artid=547805

Something that seems to be exciting all the time this year is the production car WRC. In Sardinia, the rally ended with Nasser al-Attiyah leading the field, taking the lead from Patrik Sandell with just 1.5 seconds on the very last stage. Annoying for Sandell, who took over the lead from his countryman Patrik Flodin on Saturday, when Flodin was hit by trouble. This means Al-Attiyah leads the championship with 31pts ahead of Araujo on 29pts and Sandell on 28pts. PWRC will be a tough battle until the end, it seems!

Other interesting things in this rally:

• Loeb is under investigation for a wheel change made on Saturday. Probably the subject of investigation is if the car was moving at any time when Loeb or Elena wasn’t seated. If so – this would be against the rules and should be punished, as with Duval in Japan a few years ago. This means, Loeb may lose his position…
• Petter Solberg caught the third place, ahead of Sordo (who retired after turbo problems) and Loeb who took the fourth place. Loeb was really happy with his new car spec after shakedown, and seemed to settle well with it during the weekend after some overheating problems on stage one. Now, the big question is what Citroen will do… I’ll make a separate post about that since it’s really an interesting question.
• Despite having ran Cyprus a few months ago, Sardinia seems to be the most car-breaking even of the season so far… (Henning, Rautenbach, Sordo, Ogier, Loeb’s puncture, Petter’s  [and all the others'] overheating)

Also, I want to post a short excuse on the lack of posts here the last few weeks. A lot of things to do at work, including some travel, is why. Actually I’m currently writing from my hotel room in Las Vegas, where I’m staying until tuesday. From Thursday on I’m back home so stay tuned!

After a first day with Sordo, Latvala and Hirvonen still in the fight about the lead, Loeb went into his common leading position on Saturday and kept it for the rest of the rally. For a long time, Jari-Matti Latvala looked to take a good position after his disappointing results recently – but on the 19th stage he got some problems with the fuel pressure, making him finish the rally i 6th position. Almost the same happened to Petter Solberg, who lost his fuel pressure on the next stage dropping him out of the rally. All this meant that Loeb won followed by his team-mate Dani Sordo and with Henning Solberg on third place. However, I’m not very worried about Latvala since he managed to finish, the fault wasn’t his – and I still think he has potential to be a good driver. Malcolm Wilson will have to take this error on his account and keep his confidence in Latvala.

In P-WRC Al-Attiyah won in front of Ligato, very much taking Ligato out of the discussion of a P-WRC win, while it made Al-Attiyah highly actual for the same thing. He’s now in second place of the championship, having only Armindo Araujo ahead and having Patrik Sandell just one point behind.

I must say… Let’s hope for a more interesting result in the same rally  – and hopefully a one where Loeb doesn’t win, Ford takes big points and the fight is a little bit better. The Loeb/Citroen domination is killing the WRC…

• Rally of Portugal ended quite as expected. Loeb first, Hirvonen next, the Sordo and then finally something unexpected: Petter Solberg. I’m really impressed by seeing him so high up in the standings. The car went well in Cyprus, but that’s a much slower and way different rally. I’m really impressed and I must admit I was wrong regarding Portugal, but I still think Petter shouldn’t expect very much of the Xsara later on in the faster rallies of the season. Anyway, Portugal was a real Norweigan party with Petter 4th, Henning 5th and Östberg 6th!
• Patrik Sandell made the PWRC season much more interesting when he went off the road early in Portugal, allowing for Armindo Araujo to win the group N class. This means a huge change in the standings where Araujo now leads with 23 points, before Sandell on 20 and both Brynhildsen and Prokop on 14. Now we just need a Brynhildsen and Prokop to take one step up – then the PWRC is a real nest. In fact, I consider PWRC at least as interesting this season as the WRC.
• Added to Petter’s impressive performance in Portugal, one should take into account that he was ill. On the run-up to the rally he was diagnosed with legionella, an evil disease that can be really bad. Petter is still suffering from the bacteria, but doctors have this week made sure that there will be no permanent harm to Petter’s lungs. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Petter has bronchitis and will have to take medicins for a while – medicins that interfere with the doping rules of the WRC. Petter has discussed the issue with the WRC doctors, and he will now have to stop eating the medicines before starting in Argentina next weekend.
• A lot about Petter, but it should also be added that he have tested the Abarth Grande Punto Super2000 – and Abarth immediately sent out a press release that Petter was looking to do a few IRC events in the car this year. I don’t know if that’s true, but didn’t Petter say something about a focus on the WRC? Well, I don’t know, I just know that I probably wouldn’t choose the Abarth…
• Conrad Rautenbach will go to Azores in a PH Sport backed Peugeot 207 Super2000. I guess his competitive impression will be quite weak, as usual, but it still annoys me considering the doubtful source of his money. When will somebody ask this guy where he get all his cash? Considering that he now adds an IRC drive on top of his current Citroen drive in WRC, war and crimes(?) seems to be really a good affair.
• Jari-Matti Latvala immediately got speculated to leave the team after his frightening crash in Portugal. After 20 rolls, voices were raised everywhere that he should be thrown out of the Ford team. I think that Latvala’s team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen, has proven quite the opposite. Hirvonen’s career in Subaru in 2004 was disastrous, but exactly that kind of learning period that a young drivers needs – and to stop investing in Latvala now would be totally stupid, since he has shown numerous times that he has got the speed. Just wait and see, if Latvala get’s the time he will show everyone… (and at the moment he seems to have gotten a little bit more time)
• That’s it – keep coming here, because Rally Argentina is coming up – and I’ll try to be a little bit more regular in my posting again!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to nfontas.

- The excitement will be the competition; how far can we push the car, how far can we push ourselves, where is the limit? THAT will be the excitement. It will be a different type of driving, for sure. We’ve already seem that you have to go absolutely crazy to keep the speed up with less power!

Many people, mostly including drivers and rally fans, continue to discuss wether 10 km’s more or less in speed will make the sport uninteresting. Come on! You can barely see the difference between 100 or 110 km/h – and to compensate for being slower those cars will have less advanced electronics – making up for wider slides and more rough driving. Petter is completely right here – just push the limits and WRC will offer exactly what it has been offering before; excitement, high speeds, crashes and fights on tenths of a second.

It will just be a little bit cheaper and fights will be a little bit closer, because of more drivers and teams.

Another Subaru struggler that is happy is probably Petter Solberg. After some hard years and a retired works team, Petter is now back on the podium with a third place and two stage wins in Cyprus. To be honest, even this isn’t very unexpected. Cyprus is a rally where cautiousness, experience and reliability pays off – something that the Solberg+Xsara combination have quite a lot of. I expected Petter to be in the top 4-5, and he was – he even overshot my expectations a little. That’s fine – but in Portugal speeds will be much higher and the requirements are quite different. If I were Petter – I would make sure to switch from the Xsara now, despite the podium position. But switch to what…? Actually, I don’t think it matters wether he goes for a C4WRC or a Focus WRC. He will never get the absolutely hottest stuff if he’s not a works driver – and the cars are probably quite equal. Petter’s driving style should judge that choice. But one thing is clear – the Xsara wont be of much use in the upcoming, fast rallies of the season.

The PWRC fight was quite awesome, where Portugese driver Armindo Araujo made a stunning performance leading the rally into the last day. However, on the penultimate, super-long stage of the Sunday he was overtaken by Patrik Sandell who had followed him closely during the weekend. No matter that fact, I think Araujo should be really happy about the weekend and consider the fact that group N cars usually have no chance against the Super2000 cars – something that have been proven both in the PWRC and in the IRC. For Sandell, the victory is the second PWRC victory in a row, placing him in a pleasant championship lead 7 points ahead of Araujo and 12 points ahead of Brynhildsen. For PWRC, I still miss another Super2000 driver – preferrably a Skoda driver – that can provide a measure to prove the quality of Sandell’s performances. Sandell has always been a smart driver, but not the fastest – and to see a driver like Mikkelsen as his teammate would be really, really interesting.

A funny thing during the weekend was to follow Matthew Wilson, a guy that has been a real slow-runner in the championship for the last few years. For this rally, he seems to have adopted a conservative approach from the beginning increasing his self-confidence and experience – and then increasing speed to set good times. The result was a quite low average of placings on the stages (7 in average, to be exact), but a quite good fifth position in the final standings and also a stage win on the final stage.

So, of course most drivers probably backed off on the last stage opening the way for Wilsons win – but one certainly didn’t, and in fact he makes all pieces fall into place to understand both Matthew Wilson’s stage win and other things. With most other positions in the rally settled, Sebastien Ogier overtook Wilson on the penultimate stage – giving him a 5 second lead over Wilson. Ogier’s performance has been criticised by many people, but I think his performance until the 13th stage was very good – with an average stage position of 5,5. It’s far better than Wilson, who has been doing full championships for a few years with a car well as good as Ogier. Anyway, of course both Wilson and Ogier wanted that fifth place badly – and both put in an extensive attack on the final stage. For Ogier, it all ended beside the road just 200 meters from the finish – while it ended up with a stage win and a good rally performance for Wilson. Life isn’t really fair – and of course it’s hard for Ogier now. Anyway, if it helps, when praising Wilsons performance – I think one should keep in mind that Ogier made a far better performance despite less experience – if he just would have kept on the road for another 200 meters. I think Ogier will slowly get better when gaining more and more experience, and he may surely be podium contender within a year or two.

The common works squad will be competing and Citroen Junior Team arrives with full crew, including Rautenbach, Novikov and Ogier – but without Atkinson. The later one of them has financial problems making him stay away from the wheel until the situation changes. Khalid Al-Qassimi is back for his second WRC start of the year in his BP Ford Abu Dhabi entered Ford Focus WRC, but most important is probably that Federico Villagra will do Munchis WRTs first WRC start of the year in a Ford Focus WRC. Munchis is registered as a manufacturer this year, following a change of rules allowing for manufacturers teams consisting of only one car. Stobart lines up Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson – making the Ford guys a solid 50% of the A8 class. I saw someone talking about a manufacturers championship where all cars of a given brand would score manufacturers points – like in the IRC. This is a perfect example of why that’s a bad idea for the WRC!

Petter Solberg’s entry, given the Xsara a second chance, is interesting. As I’ve already ruled out, I think sticking to the Xsara in Cyprus is wise by Petter. People have asked why I didn’t predict Petter higher in Norway (see my prediction here) – and that’s just because the Xsara isn’t good enough, especially not since I know Citroen would never release it with it’s full engine capacity. But Cyprus is different. It’s a really, really rough rally where consistency counts – not speed. That opens up for Petter, and since the Xsara is known to be quite consistent I guess Petter can do good. If he manages to stay on the road without major problems, I think he’ll be in the top five or maybe four – you just need to get through the rally to get quite high. But honestly, after Cyprus I’d switch no matter what – because Citroen will neeeever give out a really good spec.

Read the entrylist (PDF): 
http://www.cyprusrally.com.cy/documents/entry_list.pdf

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to StormcastProductions.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Petter Solberg's car during service in Vikingskipet. Photo: pettersolberg.com

Petter Solberg ended up sixth in Rally Norway. Many people think it’s bad, and compared to what Petter was expected to do by most people I must agree. But was those expectations realistic? No.

I predicted Petter to be in the top ten and maybe score some points, which is exactly what he did – sixth place gives him two drivers points. He couldn’t do much more, that is – and was – obvious. He has got an old car, I’m sure his engine mapping is a little bit downgraded by Citroen to not allow him to be able to beat their works drivers, etc. etc. I told it all a while ago in a post here on the blog (see this link). I also told it was the best strategy, because then he could do the showoff, blame the car, and then go on with more important stuff – like the future.

That’s exactly what happens now. After Rally Norway, Petter told that the car wasn’t fresh – rather half-tired – and publically admitted that a Ford switch were possible. However, he had a meeting with Citroen on Sunday evening. The result of the meeting was, according to Petter himself, that he will continue with the Citroen in Cyprus. Citroen has promised to basically go through the whole car and also get to grips with the engine troubles haunting Petter in Norway.

So, how smart is that? Quite smart, if you ask me. I still don’t believe that you can get top material from Citroen as a privateer if it doesn’t benefit the current needs of Citroen (like Duval in Germany 2007). But, that doesn’t matter that much in Cyprus. The Cyprus Rally is a very, very demanding event with really slow average speeds – where consistency and reliability is everything. If you keep on the road with a car in one part – you’ve came a long way. And that’s where the Xsara is best. It has always been consistent and reliable, giving the drivers a very high percentage of finishes – as long as they stay on the road.

This means, Petter could well take his time to see what Citroen gives him for Cyprus, try it out – and then make a decision. He wont lose on doing it – rather win. But then – after Cyprus – I think his best choice (if he wants to get good results) is Ford.

I know PG is a good driver, but his performance in the Skoda Fabia WRC is really impressive. I hope it lasts during the weekend!

Anyway, here is the video from TVNorge of Petter’s test (sorry for the scrolling):

Edit: Pareto was previously mentioned as Petter’s sponsor, but he has now confirmed that Pareto will not sponsor him this year.

It became a weekend exactly as expected as anyone could fear in Ireland. Loeb first and Sordo second. Hirvonen trying to challenge – but ending up in third and Jari-Matti Latvala failed to finish. One of the few surprises was that Pirellis Sottozero winter-tyres in many situations proved to be better suited to the conditions than the tarmac tyres because of the extremely heavy rain. Once again, tyre choices on tarmac proved crucial – but in the end of the first day everyone had learnt about the Sottozero advantage – and everything was back to normal in the results table.

Before the rally I hoped that Chris Atkinson would show new strength landing in a new car – the Citroen C4 WRC. Partially he did, as he showed some good speed on the second day. However, he also proved that he wants too much by making two off road excursions. One was a really serious high-speed accident on day one where the crew should be really happy to escape uninjured – and one happened on the last day. The later one was really a disappointment, since it happened while Atko was battling Henning Solberg for fourth place. Looking back in Atkinson’s records he has gone off way too many times while battling for places. By now, he really should have learnt to keep high speed while staying exactly within the limit. However, I still hope that Atko can get the finances ready for more rallies to show his speed. Subaru was a really bad car and it’s not easy to get into a new car and deliver immediately – especially not in the Irish conditions this weekend – so he should get a few chances more. Atko himself named Greece and Australia as possible rallies to drive.

Unfortunately, also Urmo Aava proved to be the same old Urmo as ever. He is really fast and for a short while in the beginning he led the rally. I hoped for him to stay on the road, but already on SS6 he ended up somewhere off the stage. He got back into the rally an ended 10th, but that doesn’t mean too much. I don’t know why it happens, but now that Urmo has a fast car to drive for almost a whole season he really needs to switch focus. He should start off slow (many others go embarassingly slow, so why not him?) and then slowly increase the speed until he reaches that limit where he can’t go faster without going off. Everyone in the business knows that he can be fast – but everyone also knows that he rarely stays on the road. I think he could do really good results even if he stayed at 98-99% of his capacity – and then with much lower risk to go off.

Luckily, Rally Ireland also offered some small but still good surprises. Reigning JWRC champion Sebastien Ogier only did his second rally in a WRC car but managed to finish sixth, scoring three championship points. Even though Ogier wasn’t very fast I consider this very promising. If he can manage to score sixth place in his second WRC rally, there should be no problem finding the speed when he has collected some more WRC experience. But by finishing such a difficult rally as Ireland, he shows a mature and serious approach. In two weeks Ogier has scored an IRC win in difficult Monte Carlo and then a sixth place in Ireland – which is a really, really impressive performance.

Second happy surprise was Henning Solberg, finishing the rally just outside the podium. Henning has consistently been a catastrophe on tarmac, but on the gravel-like bumpy tarmac in Ireland he found his pace. With the new, top-spec Ford Focus he managed to do some okay stagetimes and most important he stayed cold in the battle with Chris Atkinson. After seeing Henning do such a decent result on tarmac, you can’t keep from wondering what he will be up to in Norway in two weeks? I’ve seen him on snow a number of times – and even since I don’t consider Henning top notch WRC material I think he can really battle for the win in Norway. I would be really, really surprised if he didn’t beat Petter – at least if he manages to stay on the road with an intact car. We’ll see in two weeks – in a rally that hopefully is a little bit less predictable than Ireland…

Here is the full history of Petter’s car:

• Built with chassi # T412 and reg plates 32 CSP 92 in 26/3 2001
• 2001 wins Tour de Corse driven by Jesus Puras (first ever Xsara victory)
• 2001 registered as 723 CZM 78
• 2002 2nd in Rally Monte Carlo driven by Sebastien Loeb
• 2002 retired after accident in Rally Catalunya driven by Sebastien Loeb
• 2003 wins Rally Monte Carlo driven by Sebastien Loeb
• 2003 retired with engine failure from Acropolis Rally driven by Sebastien Loeb
• 2003 wins Rallye San Remo driven by Sebastien Loeb
• 2004 placed in Citroen’s museum called “Le Conservatoire”
• 2004 wins Cyprus Rally driven by Sebastien Loeb
• 2005 Tarmac test with Manfred Stohl in France
• 2005 ran by Kronos Racing registered as 322 DFQ 78
• 2005 6th in Rally Monte Carlo driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2005 9th in Rally New Zeeland driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2005 9th in Rally Italia Sardinia driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2005 Gravel tests with Manfred Stohl in Spain 
• 2005 2nd in Cyprus Rally driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2005 20th in Acropolis Rally driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2005 8th in Rally Argentina driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2005 Retired with steering failure in Rally Finland driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2005 Retired after accident in Rallye Deutschland driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2005 5th in Wales Rally GB driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2007 ran by Kronos Racing registered as 98 DZF 78
• 2007 6th in Corona Rally Mexico driven by Manfred Stohl 
• 2007 8th in Rally Argentina driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2007 12th in Rally New Zeeland driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2007 Retired with mechanical problems from Tour de Corse driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2007 6th in Rally Japan driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2007 8th in Wales Rally GB driven by Manfred Stohl
• 2008 registered as 875 EHW 78
• 2008 16th in Swedish Rally driven by Conrad Rautenbach
• 2008 driven by Felice Re in Italy registered as 14R 0101
• 2008 driven by Kris Meeke in Bettega Memorial
• 2009 driven by Conrad Rautenbach in Galway International Rally registered as 138 EQY 78

Facts source: WRCNotes.ru. Thanks to site owner Alex Sergeev!

• He is entered and will do Rally Norway in a Citroen Xsara WRC of  modified -06 spec. 
• Petter has tested the Xsara just once (same chassi used by Conrad Rautenbach on Galway International Rally on Ireland a while ago), to be able to make his decision. The test took place in Torsby, Sweden last weekend. Before Rally Norway Petter will do more winter tests in Finnskogen, Norway.
• Petter’s team will not be run by PHSport or any other known Citroen satellite team – instead it will be a stand-alone team based in France.
• Chief engineer will be very experienced Francois Xavier-Demaison, who has previously worked with Petter in Subaru.
• Modifications on the car will include switch of dampers and brakes.
• Petter and his co-driver Phil Mills will use safety equipment from Italian manufacturer OMP as a result of a recently signed sponsorship deal.
• Petter’s plan is to compete all remaining 10 WRC rallies after Rally Norway. However, not necessarily with the Xsara WRC.
• Petter’s sponsors are not completely – but almost – in box. MSN/Microsoft is one of the sponsors that will be present on the car. (Petter has previously launched a rally game for mobile phones with MSN)

Feel free to add more in the comments if I’ve forgot anything or if you know something I don’t know.

Maybe, and also probably I’m afraid, it will be regarding the Adapta World Rally Team. Adapta announced already last year that they would do a large assault this season with Mads Östberg in a Subaru. Maybe it’s some kind of up-hotted release regarding that? Perhaps they’ve managed to get an even better deal following the Subaru retirement, a second Norweigan driver besides Mads Östberg and even better Prodrive support? Not big news, I guess – but eyy… Let’s hope for something better until tomorrow!

• The Xsara WRC is quite old. Launched in 2002 and left by the works team after 2005, it’s now been more than three years since it was a works car (even though it seemed to be semi-works ran in 2006).
• Citroen has been very greedy when it comes to parts on the private Xsara’s. Daniel Carlsson and Manfred Stohl was nothing else than swindled going into the Kronos team for 2007 in the Xsara. They got old parts and had a car that – no matter what driver – wasn’t even close to winning speed for most of the season. Petter will fit some new parts to it himself, and maybe he has also got better luck, but I can’t imagine Citroen releasing parts good enough to have a chance to beat their C4′s. He will have to do a lot himself…
• Petter has been first driver in front of Atkinson since 05 – now Atkinson sits in a C4 and Petter in a Xsara. Petter has a big ego (as a rally driver should have) and it will barely fit into the car now. He doesn’t expect to have winning speed – he just want to do a showoff to his home public. Probably he will go hard, but he will always have the excuse that it’s just a showoff. Not a good mental start…

So, why did Petter choose this quite faded car? Well, it starts in the last point up there. He wants to do a showoff. Safe sources tell that Petter tested in northern Värmland in Sweden this weekend – and both the Citroen and Ramsport (Ford, close to MSport) teams were there. Petter tested the Xsara for sure, maybe a C4 (but I don’t think so) and a Focus, probably a 07 or 08 spec. Of course the Ford is better than the Xsara – and the C4 too – if that was a choice. But… If he chose them – he would have been compared to Hirvonen, Latvala, Loeb, Sordo – and all the Citroen Juniors including Atko. For sure they would all have better parts than Petter (maybe he could have got the same as the Citroen juniors though). Also, Petter would have gone straight into the car without many km’s of testing, while Loeb, Sordo, Hirvonen and Latvala has already done seasons in their cars. Considering his struggling the last few years in Subaru, it would have been a catastrophe to his brand to fail in a car directly compareable to the best. Everyone would wonder “Now that Petter is in a good car – can he match the others?” an it would of course be unfair to him – as many WRC privateers have unfair chances in every rally they do.

The Xsara is quite the opposite… Even though it’s a disappointment to me and the rest of the rally community – Petter himself can only win. If he – in some strange manner – has managed to get good parts, he can become an underdog and strike from behind. Then it wont be “considering he’s in a good car” – instead it will be “despite he’s in a bad car”. And if he hasn’t, he will still just be bad because of the car. Not a big problem.

So, I’m quite sure the Xsara wasn’t the fastest option Petter could choose – just the best to himself. And I understand him. Probably he’ll do a good showoff, get somewhere in the top 10 and maybe even score some points. Then he can do what really matters to him – find a good, long term, solution.

Read more: www.pettersolberg.no

- Egentlig kan jeg si at jeg har startet å roe meg litt. Det begynner å nærme seg med samarbeidspartnerne. Det er i ferd med å ordne seg, helt klart, sier Petter Solberg til TV 2 Sporten.

Maybe Petter and Henning has managed to get a deal together with Ford/Stobart creating their own team, run by Ramsport? Ramsport is close to MSport and have previously worked with Andreas Mikkelsen, so they’ve already got a Norweigan connection. It would be nice to see it happen!

Expect more turns before it’s over…

However, the strange thing is that Petter himself has not made anything official regarding this. Maybe this is to avoid speculations regarding himself switching to a Le Mans career, but that doesn’t really make sense. Rumours about Petter in Le Mans has already been out in Norweigan as well as international media, so there wouldn’t be much to lose by telling about the test in public. Now, Petter just gives the flora of rumours surrounding him even more power when a team confirms him in a test without Petter’s own official announcement.

UPDATE: Petter seems to have confirmed that he will test the LC70E car in Norweigan newspaper Verdens Gang.

- There are still some issues to sort out regarding which car I will be driving this season, but a decision will be made during next weekend.
Petter S.

So, finally we know when a decision will come – and this time the date is confirmed by Petter himself. Speculation has been running high for a while, with Citroen and Ford mentioned as marques – but lately even a Proton development/test role has been mentioned as an alternative, following Petter’s meeting with the Proton management.

Another option for Petter is to use the car only for testing – but that doesn’t seem very likely considering the extra engines and gearboxes he bought. Anyway, let’s assume that Petter will use the car competing in the WRC – at least in Norway.

So, what’s my opinion then? I think his results will very much depend on what gear he has managed to get from Citroen. A Xsara WRC must not be the same as a Xsara WRC – the quality may (as on any other WRC car) vary a lot depending on what parts the car is equipped with.

My own experience of that comes from Daniel Carlsson’s time with Kronos Racing in the Xsara WRC in 2007. After seeing Sebastien Loeb, we all know what a right-fitted Xsara WRC can deliver. For Carlsson in Kronos 2007, exactly the same specification as Sebastien Loeb’s 2006 World Champion car was promised from Citroen/Kronos. However, the car that was delivered was equipped with some parts that weren’t -06 and not even -05 spec. It took a long time before anything was updated, and the car was never even close to the spec of Loeb in 2006. From what I’ve heard, even Manfred Stohl was furious regarding the Xsara WRC delivered from Mr Van Dalen and Guy Frequelin.

So, the Xsara WRC may be a good car – but let’s hope Citroen doesn’t try to trick Petter Solberg. They have their own works team and also their Junior Team to take care of – so I guess Petter Solberg’s Xsara will not have the highest priority – even though he’s a star. Best for himself would probably be if he had his totally own team fitting the car with the best parts available on the market. Let’s hope that’s how it will be – otherwise Petter’s (potential) Xsara WRC experience will be a disappointment.

It’s a long shot – but knowing about Valentino Rossi’s interest in rallying (he has driven a few rallies in the WRC) combined with his good connections to Fiat you can’t avoid to dream about a Fiat superstar team with Petter Solberg and Valentino Rossi.

Will it be true? Probably not, but it’s a sweet dream.

The story goes on….

For me, this means that the header of the article (“Petter can be refused”)  seems a little bit too dramatic and for short it means that Petter can change car until the checkin of the rally, as long as he stays in one of the two classes (or one class if he enters only one, which of course seems most likely since Petter for sure is aiming for to start in the WRC/A8 class). That’s at least how it has been before – in Sweden – and the same rules should apply everywhere.

Petter himself tells the newspaper that a solution could come today but even in 2 weeks – which would mean to late for the Rally Norway. There are many speculations on what Petter may be doing in England, where a meeting at MSport is probably the most common as well as a rumour about the Ramsport Ford team. However, England is currently hosting the Autosport Show which means that probably most manufacturers are present and the country has a lot of private teams. One example is MME (Mitsubishi Motorsports Europe) – the team that ran the Lancers in the WRC in previous years. That means that speculations are probably quite useless.

Petter could use 2009 to adapt to the Super 2000 cars that will be used in 2010. Will he? No. He wants to compete against his old rivals – and win! That ends the discussion regarding Petter in a S2000 car.

So, going for a WRC car, what’s left?

Subaru Impreza WRC? Yes, that’s a possibility. Petter obviously has good connections with Prodrive and I think he should have a car there, since Prodrive expected him to drive until just before christmas. But I also think that the japanese manufacturer doesn’t want to get Petter Solberg running around the world in their cars – almost like a manufacturer driver. That’s too close to how things were last year, and Subaru has retired since then. That would make the japanese bosses “lose their face”.

Ford Focus WRC? If Petter wanted to rent a car from Malcolm, it would for sure be possible. If Malcolm didn’t have the car – he would build it. The problem is that Petter probably doesn’t want to be driving using the same gear as Henning. Also, Henning is from what I’ve understood first driver in the Stobart team, which means he has got quite high priority. Petter would never go with lower priority than Henning. But anyway, I don’t think he’s willing to risk to lose against Henning in the same car… The Solberg-brothers fight is good PR for Henning – not Petter.

Citroen C4 WRC? Citroen would be a good choice to Petter, but their factory team is full and their team of young drivers too. Added to that, Petter is not a young driver – and more important I don’t know how Citroen can manage to get enough cars. Counting on their M1 and M2 team they should already now have to work quite hard to get cars enough out to the rallies…

Suzuki SX4 WRC? I don’t know if the Suzukis are for rent, and I doubt they are. But if they are, I don’t think Petter is interested. The cars are quite new, a lot of problems still remais and Petter wants to win – not develop a car. So, no…

Mitsubishi Lancer WRC? No, the Lancer is just not good enough for Petter.

Skoda Fabia WRC? No, the Fabia is just not good enough for Petter.

Peugeot 307 WRC? Those cars are run by Bozian, they are for hire – and they have been developed quite a lot since Peugeot left the WRC after 2005. It’s an old car, but I still consider it a fully possible choice for Petter to use in the WRC.

If I were to bet regarding this today, I would put my money on Petter Solberg in a private team using a Bozian run 307WRC.
Am I sure? No, not at all – quite the opposite. But it’s my best shot.

Here follows some pictures of the 307 WRC at Daniel Carlsson’s test in February 2008 in Sweden – a spec that is probably close to what Petter could be driving in 2009.

I’ll get back with a post tomorrow with my reflections on Petter’s options for 2009. Until then, goodnight!

I’m not a rally driver, an engineer or a car technician, but what I saw was pretty impressive – at least to me. The car looked very steady and strong, and Carlsson told me exactly the same. He saw potential on getting top stage times with the car even though it’s quite old (the 307WRC was launched in Monte 2004). Bozian has made a strong job on keeping the car up-to-date and they seem to deliver good value for drivers that wants to fight on top level, or almost there.

So, why is the car not more used? People are renting Fabia WRC’s like never before, they are using all kinds of old Focuses, etc etc. The 307 is used a bit in the french championship, but could be used much more. I know that Henning Solberg had long discussions with Bozian before going to Ford for 2009, and I think that even Petter have been in contact with them, but so far there seem to be no result of that.

So, why? Is it too expensive? Or are people scared of the bad performance from the 307WRC when it was used in the WRC? I think much the second, and that’s too bad, since much has happened to the car since then. However, if I were a rally driver I would have called the Bozian guys today. I have a feeling it’s good value-for-money.