Posts Tagged ‘swedish championship’
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Peter Zachrisson, from Säffle (the same small town where Daniel Carlsson, Tina Thörner, L-E Torph, Mats Karlsson and a lot of other Swedish rally people come from), is doing his first start in this years Swedish Championship this weekend. I don’t often to write about the Swedish Championship – but it happens and Peter really is a fresh wind so…
In today’s NWT Peter tells that he has installed active differentials and paddle gearshift in his car – a Volvo 940(!!!). That’s quite amazing!
So, now you think: “Who cares about Zachrisson?”. Peter had a few OK chances a some years ago doing the Swedish Rally and planning an international career, but sadly it never really happened for him because of financial trouble. However, Peter is a hell of a driver and I tell you – watch this video, and then you’ll care. Especially – listen to the sound when he passes in front of the camera:
Thanks to Adielssonmotorsport for the video.
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Tags: daniel carlsson, lars-erik torph, mats karlsson, peter zachrisson, rally-sm, swedish championship, tina thörner, volvo 940
Posted in National Rallying, Swedish Rallying, Video | No Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Magnus Samuelsson, probably the strongest man in a rally car?! Photo: Gustafssons foto
Now it’s confirmed. As I revealed earlier today, Magnus Samuelsson (World’s Strongest Man) will start Rally Sweden 2010. The team aims to start in the World Rally Championship round, but since they still don’t have a full budget a Swedish Championship start may be the case instead. Magnus is backed by Fredrik Eljas and Olof Eljas, and the later of them will be responsible for giving Magnus the training needed (not physical, huh!?!) to do the start.
The team will run a 280bhp Subaru Impreza group N of latest spec. Magnus Samuelsson himself comments the start as follows:
- This is my dream as a young boy coming true. I’ve tried “folkrace” before but the dream has always been to drive a real rally car. It will be a true adventure and just the thought of being at the start line along with Loeb and the other boys is breathtaking.
Read the article (in Swedish) at RallySweden.com
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Tags: 2010, folkrace, fredrik eljas, group n, magnus samuelsson, olof eljas, rally sweden, subaru impreza, swedish championship, world's strongest man
Posted in National Rallying, Rally promotion and media coverage, Silly season, Swedish Rallying, WRC | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
The TV-coverage of the World Rally Championship in Scandinavia is now officialy in box. The discussions with Viasat has been known for a while, but now is even the formal agreement signed with the promotor, ISC. The agreement covers nothing less than three years of coverage, which means Scandinavian events and teams can now plan their sponsor deals on a longer term.
According to Bertil Klarin, m.d. of Rally Sweden, it means that both the Swedish Championship and the WRC event will get a lot of coverage.
Exact details regarding the coverage of Rally Sweden is not know, but the plan is TV broadcasts for four days during the rally, including live coverage of the Karlstad Super Special Stage in the start of the rally and also the finish at the new, spectacular Värmullsåsen stage in Hagfors.
(Source, in Swedish: SR)
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Tags: bertil klarin, coverage, isc, karlstad super special stage, live, motor, rally sweden, scandinavia, swedish championship, tv-coverage, värmullsåsen, viasat, WRC
Posted in National Rallying, Rally promotion and media coverage, Swedish Rallying, WRC | No Comments »
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
Daniel Carlsson - South Swedish Rally 2009
Yesterday and today Daniel Carlsson did his rallying comeback in the Swedish Championship, running a Ford Focus WRC05 to seventh place. PG Andersson won the rally just before regular Swedish frontrunner Mats Jonsson.
The rules in the Swedish Championship say that the fastest driver should go first. In this case it meant Daniel Carlsson and then Mats Jonsson. That’s probably why PG beat Jonsson, and since no new seeding is made before day two, Carlsson had to go the whole rally first on the road – filled with loose gravel. But why this seeding? Is Daniel really the fastest driver?
It was more than two years since Carlsson drove a rally last time, and in the meanwhile PG Andersson have done somewhere around 15 WRC events including some top placings. At the same time, Mats Jonsson have won the Swedish Championship and won almost every rally he started in. And if WRC merits count higher, may I ask someone to remind the Swedish organisers that Mats was the total winner of the Swedish Rally in both 1992 and 1993? Anyway, that shouldn’t be necessary – since the Swedish Rally organisation are also organising the Swedish Championship from this year on…
So… Dear organisers of the South Swedish Rally. Please do some argumentation and present some facts that you based your decision on. I don’t care about the result, but it’s an interesting principle where organisers can really affect the outcome of the rally based on making strange decisions.
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Tags: daniel carlsson, mats jonsson, pg andersson, seeding, south swedish rally, swedish championship
Posted in General rallying, National Rallying, Swedish Rallying | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
Spent the night yesterday writing the lovely press release about Daniel Carlsson coming back to rallying. I wont tell you the whole story now, but there is so much regarding his mistake and the behaviour by different actors after it that haven’t been discussed in media and that are not really nice stories (at least to those ones involved) if they come out into the light.
One day I’ll take the time to write that story to you guys reading this blog. It isn’t really the time yet, I guess, but it’s certainly coming closer. Until then I’m just really happy about the comeback and the strength Daniel is showing. His mistake was unacceptable, he can’t blame anyone – and he let everyone down. But… He let himself down more than anyone else – and he has been knowing that every day since then. Now he’s back – and just the fact that he makes the comeback is just amazing. Hope the rally makes it even better!
The scene of the comeback will be South Swedish Rally (part of the Swedish Championship) on May 15-16 2009. The car, a Ford Focus WRC05, will be engineered by AP Däckservice Engineering Team in cooperation with the guys at Tätab and Dom Buckley Motorsport.
Read more (in Swedish) at www.danielcarlsson.com
If you don’t speak Swedish and still wonders something, feel free to ask me questions in the comments and I’ll try to answer them!
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Tags: ap däckservice engineering team, comeback, daniel carlsson, dom buckley motorsport, ford focus wrc, ford focus wrc05, rally, south swedish rally, swedish championship, tätab
Posted in National Rallying, Silly season, Swedish Rallying, WRC | 1 Comment »
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
Not long ago I told by the Swedish Rally organisers initiative to let the spectators decide the heats on the super special stage in Swedish Rally 2009 – this year arranged as a Swedish Championship rally since Sweden doesn’t have WRC status again until next year. Now the idea has been tested in real life, and the organisers say that they got a lot of suggestions of heats.
Already when I wrote the first post, I pushed for the Swedish Rally to test this thing in the WRC too – and now that seems to become true. In today’s VF (Swedish newspaper) Bertil Klarin, managing director of the Swedish Rally, says that they hope to repeat the same next year. Awesome!
Jimmy Joge, Värmland Runt/Swedish Rally 2009, Photo: Micke Fransson, teambild.se
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Tags: bertil klarin, heat, heats, karlstad super special stage, rally-sm, super special, swedish championship, swedish rally, WRC
Posted in National Rallying, Swedish Rallying, WRC | No Comments »
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
The Uddeholm Swedish Rally is missing on this years WRC calendar – but the organisation has taken over responsibility for the Swedish Championship. In the season opener Värmland runt they try a new, innovative grip allowing anyone to suggest heats on the super special stage – and they will arrange the startlist based on the suggestions.
I think this is a good grip trying to change and promote the sport. I mean, everyone knows that super special stages are arranged to entertain the spectators – so why not let them choose which heats they want to see? It gives spectators a chance to influence the competition, and at the same time it gives the organiser new inspiration – because the other option is for them too choose themselves…
I’d like to see the same thing tested in the WRC, so I asked Bertil Klarin, m.d. of the Swedish Rally, and got the following answer:
- As an organiser, we have the freedom to decide the heats ourselves even in the WRC, so it should be possible to do even there.
Now, that’s great and I hope that Bertil really tries it out next year – when the WRC is back in Sweden. In the end… How can it be bad? Until then, read more at www.swedishrally.com and make your own suggestions. I’ve already posted mine…
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Tags: bertil klarin, seeding, starting order, super special stage, swedish championship, swedish rally, uddeholm swedish rally, värmland runt
Posted in Rally promotion and media coverage, Swedish Rallying, WRC | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
With just two M1 factory teams in the WRC, rally car rental’s and privateer teams are on a high. A strange thing though is that the Peugeot 307WRC is not much used. Last year, Daniel Carlsson was set to use the car in the Swedish Championship part of the Uddeholm Swedish Rally. Unluckily, the rally was cancelled – but Carlsson still drove a test of the car and a media event, and I was there both of the times.
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.
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Tags: 307wrc, bozian, daniel carlsson, henning solberg, petter solberg, peugeot 307 wrc, swedish championship
Posted in WRC | No Comments »
