Petter at Momarken

Petter will be present at Momarken 7. and 8. July for the 6th round of the European Championship Rallycross 2007. Petter, who used to be a rallycross-driver in his early days, says it is an honour to be present at the ceremonial start, and he also looks forward to meet up with old friends and to watch some great motorsport-action.

You can read more here.

News from FIA

The World Motor Sport Council decided in a meeting in Paris this week, that there will be 12 events in World Rally Championship from 2009. FIA will will present more details for the meeting in October.

“This is a good decision made by the council, and I think it will bring more teams into to the sport. It doesn’t mean any big changes for the drivers, apart from giving us more time for testing and PR”, is Petters comment to the decision.

Goodwood Festival of Speed

Last weekend Petter and SWRT were at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England. Every year Lord March opens his estate for the entire motosportworld to celebrate motorsport history. Petter and Chris were present together with Colin McRae. During the three days of the event, 150.000 spectators visited Goodwood.

Petter drove the tarmac hillclimb course on Friday, and also the 3km forest rallystage. Goodwood is also a fundraiser for the Richard Burns Foundation, and Petter gave three rides in aid of the foundation’s chosen charity – The Teenage Cancer Trust.

Colin McRae continued the driving on Saturday, while Chris Atkinson took his turn on Sunday.

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Wales Rally GB 2007

Wales Rally GB launched the 2007 event in the Welsh Parliament in Cardiff on June 12. The rally is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and it will be a big show at the Millenium Stadium 1 hour before the cars starts the superspecial on Saturday.

This year we will also see competitive driving in the darkness. The final stage on both Friday and Saturday will be run in darkness. The rally will be based in the city of Cardiff, where the start and the finish will be held. The servicepark is moved from Felindre to the central waterfront in Swansea, which hopefully will bring more spectators to the servicepark.

On the picture you can see 2 top welsh contenders, Gwyndaff Evans (Grp N) and Phil Mills. The car, a Lanchester (2,5 tons, British hand made and 18 horsepower) was the winner of the 1st GB Rally in 1932. Times have changed!

Phils blog

Well, the Acropolis Rally of Greece confirmed one thing – Champagne still tastes as good as ever! In fact, when Petter and I clambered out of our Impreza WRC2007 and on to the podium in Athens last weekend, it was one of the sweetest moments we’ve experienced in a long while.

If you saw the two of us on television as we popped the corks, you’ll have seen some real joy come flooding out. Discounting the second place we earned in Portugal after the Fords were disqualified, it seems like ages since we’ve finished in top three. The result came at the end of a tough week – in fact, make that a tough month. Rallies in Argentina,Recce in Jordan, Rallies in Italy and then Greece came at us in quick succession, with a hectic testing schedule sandwiched in between.

But no-one at the Subaru World Rally Team was complaining about the workload. Everyone has been working flat-out to develop the car to a point where we could challenge at the front. Although there’s been no time to relax, the result in Greece made it all worthwhile. It meant a lot to myself and Petter and was a reward for the commitment of the boys in the team.

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New president of STI

On May 31th, the president of STI, Mr. Katsurada had his last day on job as the president. The new president, Mr Ichiro Kudoh took over as president on June 1st – the first day of Rally Acropolis. Petter said that he was very happy that he managed to get a Subaru on the podium this weekend as a farewell gift for Mr. Katsurada.

STI is in charge of the motorsport-division for Fuji Heavy Industries and Subaru.

On the podium!

Rally Acropolis 2007 is completed and Petter ended 3rd. The winner was Marcus Grønholm, while Sebastien Loeb came second. Petter and Phil was fighting in the lead the whole weekend and was in 3rd place at the start of leg 3. I am so happy, it is so great to be on the podium again. The team has worked hard for so long and finally we succeded, said a really happy Petter before he left for the pressconference. At the podium both Grønholm and Loeb showered him down with Champagne.

Petter is now number 5 in the championship.

Rally Acropolis totalt:
1. Marcus Grønholm, Ford
2. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen
3. Petter, Subaru
4. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford
5. Henning, Ford
6. Chris, Subaru
7. Jan Kopecky, Skoda
8. Manfred Stohl, Citroen

Pictures from the day

SS18 – SS23 Rally Acropolis

The last day of Rally Acropolis includes only 5 special stages. Two stages are to be completed and then back to the servicepark, before the second loop trough the same stages, before the rally is completed with a super special at the Hippodrome. Loeb set the fastest time at SS18, with Grønholm in second place only 6,1 seconds slower. Petter was 5th, 18,3 seconds slower than Loeb.

The second stage of the day is SS19, 17,87km. Grønholm sets the fastest time, 2,1 seconds faster than Loeb. Petter again number 5, 16,9 seconds after Grønholm.

SS20 was cancelled before the rally started.

Hirvonen was the fastest car trough SS21, Latvala second and Grønholm third. Petter 4th quickest only 1,2 seconds slower than Hirvonen.

Latvala is fastest on SS22, Hirvonen came 2nd and Loeb is 3rd. Petter with the 5th fastest time, only 5 seconds slower than Latvala.

It was a fantastic stage at the Hippodrome, SS23. Petter was fighting with Hirvonen and came in with the 2nd best time. The stage was won by Sordo.

Overall Classification – Rally Acropolis 2007:
1. Grønholm, Ford
2. Loeb, Citroen
3. Petter, Subaru
4. Hirvonen, Ford
5. Henning, Ford
6. Chris, Subaru
7. Kopecky, Skoda
8. Stohl, Citroen

Morningservice

Petter got a light massage from John while he was watching the guys working on the car. He looked a little mysterious when saying the first stage will show us how thing is. Petter said on the pressconference last night that everything can happen today – anyone can have a puncture.

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