Rally Acropolis 2007

Tonight’s superspecial was a great show for the spectators. We got to see high speed, jumps and tricky corners. Petter and Phil was paired with Henning and Cato and managed to beat him with 1,2 seconds. Afterwards they both said that the result was a family-teamorder.

But the day started good for Petter and Phil as well, with the fastest time on shakedown. Petter told us that he also started one run with extra fuel and sparetyre, and still managed to keep the pace.

Rally Acropolis continues tomorrow with 7 special stages. And this time with aircondition for Petter and Phil. “We have got a small box, that weights almost nothing, inside the car, cooling us down” Petter told us earlier today.

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BP ULTIMATE Acropolis Rally of Greece, 1. – 3. juni 2007

Round 8 of the 2007 championship is coming up this weekend and we are going to Greece. In 2006 the rally was moved from Lamia, 200 km’s north of Athens, to the Olympic Stadium in Athens. This year the rally is moved further south, to the Olympic Equestrian Centre in Markopoulo.

The drivers will go through 23 twisty and boulder-filled stages on gravel north and west of Athens during the weekend. With average speed higher than Sardinia, and temperature above +30 degrees, this is one of the toughest events in the WRC.

During the weekend the drivers will run 334km of spescialstages and 1237km roadsection. It all starts on Thursday afternoon with SS1, 7 stages on Friday, 8 stages Saturday and 5 stages on Sunday. In 2006 Marcus Grønholm was the winner, and Petter finished 7th. In 2004 Petter and Phil was the winner of the rally.

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Petter’s corner

Summer is almost here and the 2007 rally season is almost half done. In the championship we are nearly in the same position as last year, but that is not were we want to be. A lot of work is to be done before we are at the top – were we should be!

Through PSSC I’m trying to give something back to all of you, for all the support you are giving me. But some of you have not registered your email, and it is very convenient for me to keep in touch with you all by email. All you need to do is to send an email with your name and correct address to info@pettersolberg.no .

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Rally Finland 2007

Bli med PSSC til Rally Finland 3. – 5. august 2007.

Destination Rally og Petter Solberg Supporters Club arrangerer tur til årets Rally Finland. Vi gir deg fart, spenning og mye moro i de finske skogene – og en uforglemmelig grillaften inne på Subaru World Rally Teams VIP-område.
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Rally Sardinia 2007

After a brilliant start Friday morning, problems with the rear-breakes made it hard for Petter and Phil to catch up. Rally Sardinia is well known for its tough stages, and on SS13 Sebastien Loeb went off the road and to retire from the rally.

Next event is Acropolis Rally 1. – 3. June 2007.

Overall classification Rally Sardinia 2007

1. Grønholm, Ford
2. Hirvonen, Ford +29,2
3. Sordo, Citroen +1.21,8
4. Henning, Ford +1.36,6
5. Petter, Subaru +2.34,2
6. Gardemeister, Mitsubishi +5.02,1
7. Stohl, Citroen +5.28,6
8. Hanninen, Mitsubishi +9.31,7

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Leg 2 Rally Sardinia

Leg 2 of Rally Sardinia is completed and Petter is on 6th place. After a good start on yesterday stages, he suffered with breakproblems at the end of the day, and that cost him a lot of seconds. The breakproblems were fixed for todays stages, but problems with the setup made it difficult for him to keep up the pace. Rally Sardinia continues tomorrow with six more stages.

Overall classification end of leg 2
1. Loeb, Citroen
2. Grønholm, Ford +36,5
3. Hirvonen, Ford +1.30,2
4. Sordo, Citroen +2.22,4
5. Henning, Ford +2.32,7
6. Petter, Subaru +3.02,6
7. Gardemeister, Mitsubishi +5.21,5
8. Stohl, Citroen +5.44,8

Leg 1 Rally Sardegna

Todays 6 stages is now completed. Petter did great on the first run through this morning, but had problems with the car’s rear breakes on the second run through, making him loose time to the other drivers. Henning is still chasing for the podium, while the morning-leader Latvala suffered a broken suspension and had to retire. Chris Atkinson went off the road on SS5 and it is still not decided if he will restart agian tomorrow.

Rally Sardinia continues Saturday with 6 more stages. First car is due on stage 7 at 0925.

Overall classification – Leg 1
1. Loeb, Citroen
2. Grønholm, Ford +22,4
3. Hirvonen, Ford +29,1
4. Henning, Ford +32,9
5. Sordo, Citroen +1.18,3
6. Petter +1.21,0
7. Gardemeister, Mitsubishi +2.04,2
8. Stohl, Citroen +2.35,8

11. Mads Østberg, Subaru +4.43,5

3 stages completed – Petter is no. 3

3 stages are completed at Sardegna and Petter is holding 3rd position. Surprisingly Hennings team-mate Jari Mati Latvala, is still in the lead after setting the best time on SS1. On SS3 Henning was the quickest car through.

The cars are now back in Olbia for service, first car is due on SS4 at 1453.

Overall after SS3
1. Latvala
2. Grønholm +1,5
3. Petter +6,8
4. Henning +9,5
5. Loeb + 10,4
6. Chris + 20,0
7. Hirvonen + 21,6
8. Sordo +50,7
10. Mads Østberg +1.50,4

Rally d’Italia Sardegna, 18. – 20. May 2007

”I hope for the podium at Sardinia, I really miss the feeling standing there after finishing a rally. I have won here before and enjoy the stages, and will do my best to be at the podium on Sunday!”

Tuesday Petter and Phil starts recce for the 2007 Rally d’Italia Sardegna. It’s the 4th time Sardinia hosts the rally, since it was moved from the mainland and the tarmac in San Remo in 2004. Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean and is an Italian island. The climate is hot, and the chance for rain this weekend is not very big. It all starts on Friday when they do 6 stages south of Olbia, which also hosts the service park. On Saturday they run 6 stages south west of the city, and on Sunday they run 6 stages north of Olbia. The roads are narrow and twisty with soft gravel covering a hard-packed base. So the early-starters will have to sweep the surface for the following cars. There are 85 entries in this years rally and it all starts on Friday morning with SS1. During the weekend the drivers will have completed 343 km of special stages and 718 km road section.

In 2004 Petter was the winner, and ended 2nd in 2005, with Sebastien Loeb as the winner. In 2006 Petter and Phil came 9th overall.

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Pons to join SWRT

SWRT announced yesterday that Xavier ’Xevi’ Pons will join the team for the second half of the 2007 season, starting with Rally Finland. Xevi will also drive a third Subaru Impreza for the complete 2008 season.

Xevi is 27 years old, lives in Barcelona and has previously contested in the WRC with both Citroen and Mitsubishi. Xevi’s codriver will be Xavier Amigo.