Rally Argentina 2007

The WRC has now moved to Argentina, and the gravel roads around Cordoba and Villa Carlos Paz. Petter and Phil are preparing their start no 100 with the SWRT, aiming for the podium. Recce starts Monday and shakedown is on Wednesday and on Thursday all teams travels to Buenos Aires and SSS1 at the River Plate Soccer Stadium. Friday they are all back in Cordoba again and ready for this weekends 22 stages.

Rally Argentina is run through a varied landscape, with numerous changes of the road surface from narrow loose gravel stages high in the mountain to flat-out harder-packed stages in the valley. Although Mexico is the rally with the highest average altitude, many of the Argentine stages are more than 1,000 metres above the sea, with leg 3’s El Condor stage, 2,195 metres, as the highest point. The high altitude of the stages can sap the cars power as they struggle to breath in the thin air.

One of the seasons highlights is a rally car plunging through a watersplash in Argentina. Getting the right line and speed on approach is crucial, with all the watersplashes there are many potential hazards.

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Rally Argentina

Next week we are ready for Rally Argentina. Petter and his team starts their journey to Cordoba on Friday. A total of 76 cars are on the entrylist for this years rally. Petter and brother Henning are the only Norwegians. Swedish Patrik Flodin and codriver Maria Andersson will enter with a Subaru Impreza, and the winner of Rally America National Championship 2006, Travis Pastrana, will also compete with a Subaru Impreza. 23 year old Pastrana is the youngest ever to win Rally America Championship.

In 2006 Rally Argentina was won by Sebastien Loeb, and Petter was 2nd overall. Gigi Galli took the 3rd place and his first podium ever. Galli were signed up for this years rally, but will not compete due to financial problems.

Another thing to remember from last years rally, was when Petter and Henning both set the fastest time on SS16. And this was Hennings first stage win ever. Overall Henning came 7th, after he had to stop on the last stage of the rally, 1000 metres before the finish line, with a broken clutch.

Chris Atkinson will start the rally with a new codriver, after Glenn Macneall decided to step down after Rally Portugal. Chris’ new codriver is Stephane Prevot. Prevot is an experienced codriver, and has worked together with Stephane Sarrazin and Francois Duval. Prevot is 38 years old and lives in Belgium.

Rally Argentina starts with a superspecial in Buenos Aires Thursday, May 3.

Petter at Motorfestivalen

The cars owner, finally..

Photosession and signing, Petter smiling as always.

Henning teaches Petter how to drive in the simulator.

Henning tries to what drivers do behind the wheel, but his brother can’t keep his hands off….

More pictures from Motorfestivalen

Motorfestivalen

More pictures from Motorfestivalen.

Motorfestivalen

Enthusiastic members of PSSC.

Motorfestivalen

A lot of people at the fair today, and a lot of happy members got to sit inside Petters rallycar. This is the car he used when he won his first WRC-event in Wales 2002.

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Motorfestivalen

A lot of members got their picture taken inside Petters rallycar at the “Motorfestivalen” show at Hellerudsletta.This Sondre who joined the PSSC today.

Motorfestivalen

Nå er Motorfestivalen 2007 i gang, og PSSC er jo selvfølgelig tilstede. Hos oss kan du handle supporterutstyr og prøvestitte Petters vinnerbil fra 2002. Det var i denne han tok sin første WRC-seier, og senere ble nr 2 totalt. Helen, som er prosjektansvarlig som for hele Motorfestivalen, har allerede prøvesittet.

Rally and environment

When talking about protection of the environment, rallying is not on the toplist. But a lot of things are done to help protect the environment.

All rally-cars on Ethanol in the WRC, would be the best. This would reduce the amount of CO2-emissions with 80%. During Swedish Rally 2007 three cars completed using only Ethanol. FIA-president Max Mosley has declared that in 3-5 years Ethanol will be the new kind of fuel in the WRC.

The fuel used today is petrol. All cars use the same kind, and all cars fill up at the same place (organized by the organizer). By doing it this way, the teams does not have to carry their own petrol, nor storing it.

Remote-service is another environmental benefit. To avoid rallycars driving back to the main servicepark, the teams bring a “mini-servicepark” out were the cars are.

All parts and equipment are built to last more than one rally. Meaning the same engine has to be used in two rallies.

As an organiszer Rally Norway bought environmental quotas through the Norwegian organisation “Framtiden i våre hender”, to compensate for the CO2 emissions during the event. The total emission was estimated to be 189 ton.