Posts Tagged ‘rally sweden’
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
Karlstad Super Special Stage this afternoon. Photo: Mikael Hjerpe
A friend of mine in Karlstad just gave me a report of the conditions at the Karlstad Super Special Stage, where Rally Sweden is set to kick off on Thursday . The stage will also be run a second time on Friday evening.
The conditions are perfect with ice, snow and a temperature of +2 in the sun and -4 in the shadows. This is perfect since it allows for the upper surface to melt just a little to then freeze once again. The organiser also monitors the surface a long time before the rally and makes sure to build up a thick level of ice on the track.
Just watch the beautiful picture!?!
Tags: färjestad, färjestadstravet, friday, ice, karlstad, karlstad super special stage, rally sweden, snow, temperature, thursday, track, weather
Posted in Swedish Rallying, WRC | 1 Comment »
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
Our friend Sebastien Loeb has commited two day’s of testing in Gräsmark outside Torsby in Sweden. The test has gone well, but most interesting is that Loeb did give something that we can probably consider the final confirmation that he is never happy. Despite maybe half a meter of snow (that has been there constantly for the last two months) and temperatures as well as forecasts well below zero, Loeb spent half his talk with the Swedish television (this may be edited, sure, but still!) complaining about the lack of ice under the snow. He didn’t like plenty of snow and he didn’t like reaching the frozen gravel under all snow…
Come on, how should one react? “Oh, poor Sebastien.” 
Can’t you drive on real snow? Hehe… I think this underlines quite well that it doesn’t matter how the conditions are – people will still complain. Probably it’s just a smart way of not having to speak about your performance just before the rally – and save that until after. I respect that it happens, but one shouldn’t take too much notice of it…
Tags: conditions, frozen, gravel, ice, rally sweden, sebastien loeb, snow
Posted in Rally testing, WRC | 2 Comments »
Friday, February 5th, 2010
Juho Hänninen, the Finnish Skoda works drive in IRC, had entered Rally Sweden as a privateer in a Skoda Fabia Super2000. However, as it seems, Juho won’t come to the start in the rally. The information is currently unconfirmed and no reason has been given, but don’t expect to see the fast finn on the roads in Sweden.
Tags: 2010, finland, juho hänninen, rally sweden, s2000, skoda fabia super2000
Posted in Silly season, WRC | No Comments »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
I mentioned the promising Rally Sweden weather forecast a little bit more than a week ago. However, now it’s more than a week closer and with less than ten days to go until the rally starts, it’s a lot easier to trust the forecasts and to give a picture of the weather waiting during the rally.
Looking at yr.no, the Thursday to Saturday (this is as far as their forecast goes) will have -7 to -10 degrees, and mostly sunny weather. Perfect conditions, considering it has been snowy and cold for the last two months! During the last few days it has snowed in the area, actually so much that roofs has been breaking etc. because of the amount of snow on them.
So, everything looks really, really good for a snowy rally…
Tags: forecast, ice, rally sweden, snow, weather
Posted in WRC | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
A few weeks ago, I was one of the first to reveal that Patrik Flodin tried to get an entry together for Rally Sweden. He managed to do it, and entered the rally in a Mitsubishi Lancer. However, after Flodin’s success in Rally Peno in Russia this weekend – it seems like things happened with the Uspenskiy Team. Despite all the budget trouble, they now want him to drive their Impreza in Sweden. Maybe they have problems giving up the rally thing – or is the economy a little bit lighter? I don’t know, but I know Flodin sent me some small hints that the situation (in general, not Uspenskiy’s) looked a little bit brighter when I talked to him a few weeks ago than it did during the autumn… Let’s hope Flodin makes a really good drive and that it will be enough to get more drives throughout the season! The guy deserves it…
Tags: patrik flodin, rally sweden, uspenskiy rally team
Posted in Silly season, WRC | No Comments »
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
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!
Tags: 2010, andreas mikkelsen, citroen c4wrc, marcus grönholm, patrik sandell, petter solberg, pontus tidemand, rally sweden, subaru impreza, svulla rally dahbi
Posted in National Rallying, Rally testing, WRC | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Daniel Carlsson with co-driver Bosse Holmstrand enjoying perfect snow conditions of solid ice covered with a thin layer of loose snow in Uddeholm Swedish Rally 2006. Photo: Rasmus Bjerén
With more than two weeks left before the rally kicks off it’s too early to judge how the weather situation for Rally Sweden will be, but considering the discussions that has always been before the rally in recent years, I can’t avoid thinking about how promising it looks. It has been cold weather since early December in the rally region (and in almost whole Sweden) and currently reports are talking about ca 40 cm’s of snow in the area. That may of course vary locally, but there is snow – no doubt. And then, looking at the forecast for the next 10 days, it shows more snow the next few days and cold weather for the whole period.
The only thing that could improve is the icyness. The snow came immeditely as the temperature had gone sub-zero – and since the snow isolates the ground, that means that the ground isn’t frozen as much as it would preferably be. Without a layer of ice and/or frozen ground, the car will fast blow away the snow and reach the ground that gets muddy and teared up. If it came a short, very short, melting period followed by cold weather again – the snow surface on the roads would get packed, partially melted and then freezed back to ice. That, with a thin or thick layer of fresh snow on top of it would make up the perfect conditions for a winter rally with snow spraying behind the cars, studs staying in the tires and a great winter atmosphere.
However, I think the current conditions are certainly good enough – and better than most times – for a fantastic winter rally. So, let’s not worry and just hope the fantastic conditions stay for the next few weeks, and everything will be just amazing! I have a feeling that Rally Sweden 2010 will be remembered as the best for quite a few years…!
Tags: 2010, bo holmstrand, bosse holmstrand, conditions, daniel carlsson, forecast, ice, isolate, mitsubishi lancer wrc, rally sweden, snow, studs, sub zero, weather, winter
Posted in Swedish Rallying, WRC | 3 Comments »
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
Another video of Petter in Finnskogsvalsen, with a little bit more action shots, have been published. It also features a lot of nice local cars, but if you want just Petter – look at the beginning of the film for SS1 and at 1:44 for SS3.
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.
Thanks to bakkis2 for this video.
Thanks to cnygge for the video.
Tags: 2010, finnskogsvalsen, petter solberg, phil mills, rally sweden, sweden, torsby, värmland, Video
Posted in National Rallying, Rally testing, Swedish Rallying, WRC | No Comments »
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
As most of you know, Petter Solberg tested his car in Finnskogsvalsen yesterday. Here are two video clips of it, one is an interview (in Swedish/Norweigan) at the start – and one is a clip from SS2. I’ve made a summary of the most important things said in the interview below the clips.
Driving on SS2:
The interview:
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…”
Tags: 2010, citroen c4wrc, finnskogsvalsen, france, gearbox, interview, mexico, petter solberg, privateer, pswrt, rally sweden, sebastien loeb, subaru, summary, testing, torsby
Posted in Rally testing, 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 »
