Rally Sweden – day 1

Jari-Mati Latvala is in the lead, when the first day of Swedish Rally is completed. 8 Stages have been run, and several drivers have retired from the rally. Petter is on 5th place, while teamcollegue Chris is 33rd. Chris went off the road on SS3 after a spin, got caught in a snowbank and lost 15 minutes when trying to get the car back on the stage.

PG Andersson suffered engine problems on SS4 and were forced to stop on the stage. He later retired. Sebastien Loeb also went off the road, and rolled once. He managed to get to the remote service, but his team were not able to fix the clutch and the coolingsystem, and he retired later on the roadsection. Sebastien Loeb is restarting Saturday under SupeRally regulations.

Rally Sweden continues tomorrow with 6 more stages. First car is on the road at 0825.

Overall classification – Day 1

1. Jari Mati Latvala, Ford
2. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford +48,2
3. Henning Solberg, Ford +56,3
4. Gigi Galli, Ford +1.02,0
5. Petter, Subaru +1.45,2
6. Mads Østberg, Subaru +2.15,1
7. Matthew Wilson, Ford +2.59,6
8. Toni Gardemeister, Suzuki +3.21,6

A great start for Petter in Karlstad

A great start for Petter at the trotting field in Karlstad yesterday. With the fastest time, he is starting today – leading the 2008 Swedish Rally. Petter was paired with PG Andersson, and PG ended 7th. Jari-Mati Latvala came 2nd overall, with his teamcollegue  Mikko Hirvonen on 3rd.

 
Fridays work have allreday started. The cars are collected from Parc Ferme in Karlstad, and are scheduled for a qucik 10 minute prepare at the servicepark, before they head out to the stages. 3 stages will be run, and then they will go to the Remote Service in Sunne, before they out the second loop through the morning stages.

Remote Service means a lot of extra work for the team. They are using the same crew and equipment on both remote service and in Karlstad. After the short morningservice, all the needed equipment will be loaded into the vehicles and they will all go to Sunne and set up for the remote service. After the service, they will unpack it all, and bring it back to Karlstad – and unload it again. The team also need to bring food and drinks out from the servicepark for several meals. Remote Service is shortening the drivers roadsections, but are definitely meaning more work for the rest of the crew. They also have to spend a lot of hours in the car going back and forth.

This year Pirelli is the only tyre-supplier, and they have developed a brand new tyre for snow and ice, called Sottozero. Earlier,  the teams could choose between different pattern, compound and studs – but this year, they all got only one choice, the Sottozero. A 145/85 Sottozero tyre are fitted with 400 2cm studs, with only 7mm outside the tyre.

Dani Sordo, Citroën, are starting the rally with a 5 minute penalty, given by the FIA. After the turbo related problems in Monte Carlo, the team decided to replace the engine before this rally. According to FIA regulations, the same engine should be used for both rallies.

Press-conference Swedish Rally

Petter was attending the FIA pressconference in Karlstad today, together with PG Andersson, Gigi Galli and Mikko Hirvonen. FIA hosts a pre-event press-conference on every rally, and this year Becs from World Rally Radio is the hostess.

It’s been 10 years since Petters first entered the Swedish Rally in a WRC-car. In 1998 he ended 16th, but on todays press-conference he admitted that nor he or Henning had too much focus on the championship during the event. The most important thing was to drive against Mäkinen, Auriol and the other “big” guys. Further on he said that the strategy for this event is pretty much the same as for Monte Carlo; do his own race. “Of course, I will push – but I will not go over the limit!”

A lot of questions were for PG as well, and he explained that the media-interest has increased about 600% since last year. But he enjoys every minute of it. With 300k’s of testing in January, he feel the handling of the car is quite good, and with snow and ice being his favourite conditions, he is really looking forward to the weekend.

Gigi Galli says he has no strategy for this rally, other than finding a good balance with the car, and enjoy every minute of driving. And he managed to make some fun for all the reporters. After a long answer to one of Becs questions, he suddenly asks; What was the questions again?!?!

Mikko Hirvonen is hoping for a battle this weekend, and will go flat out right from the beginning.

Shakedown Swedish Rally – result

Petter got the second fastest time at shakedown in Karlstad this morning. He did 4 runs trough the 1,8km long special stage and set the fastest time on his 4th run. Chris Atkinson was fastest today, and Sebastien Loeb ended with the same time as Petter, and they are sharing the 2nd place.

Today the sun is shining over Karlstad (as always!), which is good for us that are watching the rally, but not so good for the stage. The local motorclub have been watering the road to make a sole of ice, and it worked well on the first runs. But as more and more drivers came trough, it just went muddy.

“I feel well prepared for the rally and the car felt good this morning. Rallying in Sweden is always fun, although the hot temperatures gives us some extra challenges this year. But that’s same for all. I am really looking forward to see a lot of Norwegian flags out in the woods this weekend!”

Rally Sweden starts with a superspecial at the Färjestad trottingcourse outside Karlstad, this evening av 20.04.  Petter is paired with Swedish PG Andersson.

Tip of the day; Skvett mej en hojt! Can be used if you would like something to drink. 

Result Shakedown

1. Chris 1.06,1

2. Petter 1.06,4

3. Loeb 1.06,4

4. Galli 1.06,7

5. Henning 1.06,7

6. Mikkelsen 1.06,9

7. Latvala, 1.07,0

8. Hirvonen 1.07,2

9. PG Andersen 1.07,3

A new podcast will be published later today, this time with competition!

Servicepark – Karlstad

The servicepark is almost done, and ready for the weekends rallyguests. It is perfectly situated right next to the rally Headquarter, shakedown and superspecial. However, the weather is not ready for the rally. Rain and hot temperatures are chasing the snow away, and the same weather conditions are expected through out the weekend. Swedish rally was first organized in 1950, and has only been cancelled once (1990) due to mild weather conditions.

The Swedish Prince Carl Philip, duke of Värmland, will be attending the start ceremony tomorrow, giving us all a royal glimpse.

Tip of the day: Lagoma korvar är best! It means something like a perfect hot dog is a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Swedish Rally – info

Endelig er det klart for Svenske-rally. Snøen er på plass, og vi får krysse fingrene for at kuldegradene også holder seg. Ettersom Norge ikke fikk arrangere rally i år, blir vel dette nesten som vår hjemmebane å regne.

I år finner vi den permanente serviceparken og parc ferme i Karlstad, byen hvor solen alltid skinner, mens det fredag blir remote service i Sunne og lørdag og søndag remote service i Hagfors. For de som er på plass allerede torsdag morgen, så kan dere glede dere over at det er mindre enn en kilometer mellom serviceparken og shakedown. Torsdagens superspesial er også i gangavstand fra serviceparken, nærmere bestemt inne på travbanen på Färjestad.

66 biler står på startlisten, og 5 av disse er nordmenn. I tillegg til Petter og Henning, finner vi Mads Østberg med kartleser Ole Kristian Unnnerud, Andreas Mikkelsen med kartleser Ola Fløene og Eyvind Brynhildsen med kartleser Denis Giraudet. En kvinnelig fører er påmeldt, Ramona Karlsson kjører en Subaru Impreza med kartleser Miriam Walfridsson (og ja, Miriam er i slekt med Petters fru Pernilla).

Petter vant her i 2005, men måtte dessverre bryte i 2007 og 2006. I fjor ble finnen Marcus Grønholm vinner. Totalt skal det kjøres 20 fartsetapper i løpet av helgen på til sammen 340km. I tillegg kommer 1100km transport.

Dagens tips; ikke spis den gule snøen!

Read the rest of this entry »