End of Leg 1 – Wales Rally GB

Petter ligger på 4. plass når dag 1 av Wales Rally GB er ferdigkjørt. Leder gjør finnen Mikko Hirvonen, hele 39,6 sekunder foran teamkollega Markus Grønholm som ligger på andre plass. Sebastien Loeb er på tredje plass, nesten minuttet etter Hirvonen.

Dagen startet med typisk walisisk vær. Tåken gjorde det vanskelig å se, helikopterne har faktisk hatt flyforbud i dag, og gjørmete glatte veier kunne lett ha sendt Petter rett til skogs. Tidlig på SS1 kom Petter litt for fort inn i en sving og bilen snurret kraftig. – Kan nesten ikke tro at vi kunne fortsette etter dette, mer flaks enn dette har jeg nok ikke hatt før, sa Petter inne på service etter at 3 etapper var kjørt.

I det førerne dro ut for å andre gjennomkjøring av morgenens etapper, kom også uværet. Regn og vind gjorde etappene til et ordentlig gjørmebad. Dagens siste etappe ble kjørt i mørke og tåke, en kombinasjon som ikke gjør det enkelt å se. Flere av førerne fikk problemer med vindusviskerne etter hvert. Henning’s siktproblemer startet på SS5 og Cato måtte bruke en pinne og en caps for å prøve å holde frontruta ren. Henning måtte i tillegg stoppe flere ganger på SS6 for å slippe forbi biler som tok han igjen, og har selvfølgelig tapt mye tid. Latvala som lå på 4. plass før SS6, fikk også problemer med sikten og tapte mye tid og falt nedover på resultatlista.

Wales Rally GB fortsetter med 7 etapper lørdag, første etappe starter kl 0938.

Petter is in 4th place when leg 1 of Wales Rally GB is completed. Mikko Hirvonen is leading the rally, 39,6 seconds ahead of his team-colleague Markus Grønholm who is 2nd. Sebastien Loeb is number three, almost a minute after Hirvonen.

The day started with typical Welsh weather, fog that made it difficult to see anything and mud that made the roads slippy. And the rally could have ended early for Petter. He came to fast into the second corner on SS1 and had a spin. – I cant really believe that we managed to stay on the road after the spin, he said at the servicepark later.

Just as the drivers left the servicepark heading for the second loop through the morning-stages, the rain started. According to some of the drivers, the rain turned the roads into mud-wholes. Some of the drivers also had trouble with the windscreen wipers, making it difficult to see anything, and forcing them to slow down.

Wales Rally GB continues Saturday with 7 more stages. First car starts at 0938.

Overall classification Leg 1

1. Hirvonen, Ford
2. Grønholm, Ford +39,6
3. Loeb, Citroen +57,9
4. Petter, Subaru +1.34,0
5. Sordo, Citroen +2.37,9
6. Wilson, Ford +5.01,3
7. Chris, Subaru +5.02,3
8. Stohl, Citroen +5.37,9
…
9. Pons, Subaru
10. Mikkelsen, Ford
12. Østberg, Subaru
14. Latvala, Ford
15. Henning, Ford

Ready for Wales Rally GB

This weekend we are ready for the final round of the 2007 championship. Who the champion will be are still not clear, but Loeb is leading with 110 points ahead of Grønholm’s 104 points. Grønholm had to retire from Rally Ireland, and got no points with him from the event.

Wales Rally GB is Phils home event, and Petter and Phil are listed in the books with 4 wins from this rally. The first one in 2002. In 2006 they ended 3rd.

The magic word for this rally is traction. Without it you will be off the road and into the woods before you know it. This is a gravel-rally, but typical Welsh-weather turns the gravel roads into mud-roads. Fog is expected, as well as rain, rain and rain. World Rally Radio were present when Petter and Phil tested in Wales last weak, and make sure to check out the interview when we upload the podcast on the website sometime during Wednesday.

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Phils guide to Wales Rally GB – Leg 3

LEG 3 – Sunday 2nd December, 2007.
SS14: Brechfa 1 (28.89kms). Start: 07.46
Brechfa is again an exact re-run of the ’06 stage There is quite an unusual surface in Brechfa as its soil based, so exceptionally slippery in the wet and very abrasive in the dry. Trees lurch into the road, so it’s a good place to break your windscreen. The start is fast and flowing with nice sweeping corners with big drifts everywhere, then after 10 Kms it starts to get very fast with long straights and difficult braking, it stays like this until the last 6 Kms where it gets quite technical and twisty with muddy corners and drainage ditches everywhere and easy to break a wheel. Viewing near the start of the stage is best, because it’s very open and you can see a long way.

SS15: Trawscoed 1 (27.97kms). Start: 08.33
This is the exact reverse of the ’06 stage going back to the same stage as 2004.
The start is quite tricky with 1 left hand corner which has claimed some famous names in previous years including Carlos Sainz! Then it goes downhill to a very tricky right hand bend over a bridge which many cars had had accidents on over the years. Then it starts to climb uphill and gradually getting faster and quite narrow, the last section is very tricky with trees right beside the road edge and combined with a mud/soil base this becomes one of the trickiest sections of the whole event and a real sting in the tail if anyone decides to push too hard here!

SS16: Brechfa 2 (28.89kms). Start: 12.09
The roads in Brechfa are so smooth they hardly rut at all. In fact, the more cars that drive through it the more the surface polishes off, so it’s even more slippery the second time through.

SS17: Trawscoed 1 (27.97kms). Start: 12.56
Like Brechfa, the second time through it’s a lot more slippy, regardless of whether it’s wet or dry. You can easily get caught out in places which were fine only hours before. It’s a very difficult stage to finish a tough rally on and they’ll be some swapping of places in here for sure.

Finish: City Hall, Cardiff. Start: 15.00
It’s a long drive back to Cardiff for the finish ceremony, but when you’ve got the iconic Millennium Stadium on your doorstep, there is only one place to end the event in style. Come into the Stadium for free and watch the closing ceremony.

Phils guide to Wales Rally GB – Leg two

LEG 2 -Saturday 1st December, 2007

SS7: Crychan 1 (19.47kms). Start: 09.38
Leg 2 is exactly the same as last years, beginning with a classic Welsh forest stage. There are a couple of bad places just off the ranges with 1 very tricky junction 2.5 Kms from the start where we slipped off and got stuck last year!. Then there is a very fast section – we’re in sixth gear for two and a half miles – into an unseen junction, which a lot of people overshoot. Then it’s very narrow, down to a place the Scandinavians call – Orange Road’ because of the colour of the pine needles. Dry or wet, it’s very slippery – the last two miles you have to be so careful. Our team-mate Chris Atkinson spun his Subaru Impreza down a bank in this stage in -05 and retired from the leg, so it’s a stage that can really bite back.

SS8: Epynt 1 (13.76kms). Start: 10.21
There are some very long downhill adverse-camber corners near the start, and a lot of cars went off there last year. There is a new section of road up on the Mynydd Epynt area, which has been built by the Military of Defence as a link road to avoid the live firing range which we used last year for the first time where there is a spectacular new jump, appropriated named Paras Jump. It’s really odd up on the Sennybridge Training Area, because it’s the only place on the rally where there are no trees. It’s also one of the highest places on the rally, so could be foggy. Our other ’05 team-mates, Stephane Sarrazin/Denis Giraudet, slid into a bank and retired from the leg on this stage! It is also a stage where militart debris can also play apart and not unusual to have a puncture with a brass shell piercing through the tyre!

SS9: Halfway 1 (18.37). Start: 10.54
The first half of this stage is in a forest and the second is up on the ranges. There is a very tight hairpin left junction near the start, then it goes downhill to a right hander over a bridge. Then there are a couple of jumps in the middle of the wood and you climb up through some open hairpin bends through a quarry and then it’s very fast all the way up to Dixies Corner. Dixies is a great place to watch because you can see so much. It looks a simple section of road, but as everybody knows it’s not and it catches a lot of people out. We come out of Halfway forest and over a crest, which is on the asphalt junction of Dixies. There is huge jump there and we fly high onto a new gravel road, which runs parallel to the old asphalt road. It looks like drivers throw caution to the wind, but there is actually a big hole on the inside which a lot of people went into last year and did a lot of damage, so you have to be careful and take the right line. The gravel road itself is wide and flowing, yet it’s also one of those bits of road where you have to be very careful and really think about what you’re doing. All that section, from Dixies junction and on for about a mile after it, is quite tricky and complicated for the driver, so anywhere along there is extremely good viewing. After the asphalt the last five miles are absolutely flat out with very long corners and crests!

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Phils guide to Wales Rally GB – Leg 1

Dag 1, fredag 30. November 2007

SS1 Port Talbot 1, 17,41km, første bil start 0953
Denne etappen var SS1/4 i 2006. Den første delen er veldig rask med lange rette strekker og hopp, 6. gir i flere kilometer. Midtveis er det fort gjort å kjøre av, for her er det glatt, spesielt rundt innsjøen The blue Lagoon. Her kjører man på et tynt lag av gjørme over grusen som gjør veien ekstremt glatt. Inn til mål er det utforbakker som virkelig setter bremsene på prøve.

SS2 Resolfen 1, 24,49km, første bil start 1041
Dette er en utfordrende etappe som nok vil inneholde flere forskjellige underlag å kjøre på; løs grus, hard grus, og gjørme – om det skulle regne. Denne etappen er lik SS2/5 fra 2006. Her vet du faktisk ikke hva du kan vente deg, før du er i gang på etappen. Været avgjør hvor glatt det er. En ganske raskt start og rett opp til et t-kryss, hvor flere biler har vært av veien før. Videre går etappen over i et raskt parti med hopp hvor utfordringen blir å kunne ”lese” veien nøyaktig nok. Denne etappen inneholder også noen av de lengste svingene i hele VM, noen av de så lange som 600-800 meter. Her er det også vanskelig å få notene nøyaktige nok. Etappen fortsetter videre over fjellet, og i fjor var det et parti hvor tømmerhogst hadde gjort veien ekstra gjørmete. En ting er sikkert, Resolfen er en kjempeutfordring og det var her flere dro av veien i fjor.

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Rally Ireland 2007

Petter ended fifth in Ireland on his 33rd birthday. A puncture on the first stage of the day cost him a few seconds, but he ended the rally with winning the final stage. The winner of Rally Ireland 2007 was Sebastien Loeb and his team-colleague Sordo came 2nd. Jari-Mati Latvala managed to keep his 3rd place, and Mikko Hirvonen secured 4th with two stage wins today.

The next event and final round in the 2007 championship is Wales Rally GB, 30. November – 2. December.

Overall classification Rally Ireland 2007

1. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen
2. Dani Sordo, Citroen +53,4
3. Jari Mati Latvala, Ford +1.48,2
4. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford +2.17,7
5. Petter, Subaru +2.55,8
6. Guy Wilks, Subaru +5.57,9
7. Matthew Wilson, Ford +10.04,9
8. Gareth Machale, Ford +11.08,3
9. Andreas Mikkelsen, Ford +13.08,2