Info for all members

The 2007 membership-package is now on it’s way to all of you members. We have had some trouble with finding the correct names and addresses, but we hope it is OK now.

If you haven’t received the package within reasonable time, send an email to info@pettersolberg.no . But please allow at least two weeks for the abroad packages.

 

New tyres and tarmac

What does Petter really mean when he speaks about choosing too hard tyres? What is the difference between gravel-rally and tarmac-rally? And why is it so difficult to make the correct tyre choice? A lot of questions to be answered after the Monte Carlo Rally, we will try to explain.

If you are an average driver, you choose wintertyres in the winterseason and regular tyres for the summerseason. Some of us take five minutes to find out if we need studs for the wintertyres, but that’s it. So what is it about rally and tyres?

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Petter meets Prince Albert of Monaco

During the podium ceremony Sunday afternoon in Monte Carlo, in front of the royal palace, Petter ran over to Prince Albert, and gave him his drivers-gloves. A smiling Albert thanked him, and wondered if there were any lessons in driving coming with the gloves. Maybe we will find Prince Alberts name on the startinglist for a rally in the future?!

 

 

Results Rally Monte Carlo

Rally Monte Carlo is over, and we were all excited to see if Chris could manage to steel a second from Hirvonen, which he did and claimbed 4th position overall. As always Petter was the showmaker, and the spectator were cheering for him when he did his spins. A lot of spectator were standing a long the circuit, but they made more noise when the cars did the recce 5 and 5 earlier. Now its almost 1200 and all the barriers and the supporters has left the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

End of leg 2 Rally Monte Carlo

Leg two, or leg 3 actually, of Rally Monte Carlo is finished, with Petter holding 6th position. Petter is happy with the results, but says they still have a long way to go before they get to know the tyres properly. The teameffort has been great, but the tyrechoice on Friday morning really put and end to hoping for topresults. Chris is holding 5th position, and has two stagewins today. With only a second up to Hirvonen who is number 4, we know there will be a fight for this position tomorrow. Brother Henning is number 15 overall so far, and says he still has a lot to learn about the new car.

Supporters gathered around the Subaruarea early this afternoon, already at 1500pm there were lots of people waiting for Petter, who was due in at the servicepark at 1645. There has been thousands of spectators out on the stages, but most impressive is the hugh amount that has been waiting on the roadsections, cheering for the drivers as they head to the stages. At 6am in the morning, still dark and cold, they are ready with their cameras. I have never seen so many spectators at the roadsections on any rally before. And down at the servicepark, the marshals had to get assistance from the police to keep the spectators behind the barriers.
The rally continues tomorrow with a 2,8km’s long super special stage in the lower part of the Formula 1 circuit in Monte Carlo harbour. The first two cars sets off at 0900. Starting order is based on the overall classification from today, which means that it will be car no 40 versus car no 39, and so on. At 0955 they will start with car no 20th versus car no 19th. This means that Chris and Petter will race in a pair and so will Sordo and Loeb. All cars must use unstudded snowtyres.

The servicepark is almost empty now, Petter, Phil, Chris and Glen are heading down to Monte Carlo by air, together with the management. Just a handful of the teammembers will be down there tomorrow, most of them are going home tonight. And the rest of us are just about to get into the car and start the 4hour drive down to the jetset-city.

Rally Monte Carlo

 

Early this morning the cars left Valence and the servicepark at 6am. First car was not due on stage 9 before 0731, so this was a long roadsection to go. In complete darkness, up and down twisty roads with temperatures between 0 and 5 degrees C. They were almost driving in a convoy with rallycars, mobilehomes and local frenchs. Bruno Berglund and the safetycrew started their job before 0400 this morning, to make sure the stages matches Phils info.

Todays first leg was about 20k’s, and Petter said after that he didn’t feel he had the right tyres for this stage, but for the next two the tyre would be perfect. And he was going in a great pace until 3 k’s before the stage end, then the car understeared on the wet conditions, and they went of the road and damaged the left front wheel. Petter ended 5 on this stage, only 7,7 seconds behind stagewinner Chris. Both tyre and rim were damaged, and it cost Petter about 12 sec.

Chris set the best time on stage 10, but was struggeling with a loose driveshaft. Both Chris and Glen were working on it after the stage and they managed to fix it.

When handing over the gravelnotes for stage 11, Bruno told us that he knew from earlier years that it would be wet on the place were Petter lost the grip. He wrote a warning, WET, in Phils notes, and said that this might saved them from setting of into the forest. Petters average speed on this stage were 124km/h.

The cars are now about to start on the 2nd loop of the same 3 stages, and Petters due on Stage 12 at 1321.

 

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