It appears the have 'a little' snow with icy roads, but nothing blizzard like.

**News 1/29/05**
-Henning Solberg is nominated to drive #2 Focus
-Denis Giraudet (ex-Phillipe Bulgalksi/Auriol codriver) is to codrive for Sarrazin
-Mattias Ekstrom is running a local rally in a FabiaWRC in Fredriksburg in preparations
-Sarrazin is nominated as points scorer over Chris Atkinson
-Atkinson has been in Puppola, Finland at Tommi Makinen Racing prepping for the snow with Pasi Hagstrom and Tommi himself
-Thomas Radstrom WAS to drive a SubaruWRC2003, but it appears that Prodrive failed to prep the car and is running out of time for the event
-At this rate, Armin Schwartz may miss the event due to his injuries from Monte Carlo

www.wrc.com
www.rallye-info.com
www.swedishrally.com
www.subaru-global.com
http://www.swrt.com/cpimages/484994.jpg



.................................................. ................................................

I didn't want to whore up Motorsports and take glory away from Monte, but I may be the bearer of bad news.

I'm hearing news from Hagfors that there is no snow there.

No snow = No rally.

Spikey no worky on gravel.

Stay tuned.

:( :confused: :(

ouch.

so you have a trip for nothin then?


so THATS where my old friend got his last name from. erik hagfor or maybe hagfors

A Swedish rally with no snow = ??? What's under all those snow anyway? Gravel? Tarmac? Rocks?

They have had Sweden with little-->no snow before. Its also a month away. The most exciting rally of the year is coming up first. Lets hear some talk about that. :banana:

The stages would be just like Finland if it was dry, gravel.

Yeah, no snow. It's hovering around 32*F in Karlstad with no snow in the 20d forecast.

The can't move the stages this late. The only option I could see is letting the cars use dedicated snow tires or gravel tires. But then again, non-studded tires this time of year is against the law. The FiA has threatened to pull the plug on the rally before if they cannot promise snow, therefore the organisers keep moving the stages further and further north.

Jumping the gun a little:huh:

The rally is still a month away, anything can happen with the weather

non studded tires is against the law even if there is no ice or snow? hahaah

Here's some more info I found.

Torsby is just to the west of a few of the stages....

http://www.rallyforum.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=99880&perpage=20&display=&pagenumber=1

I don't suppose they could use some snow making machines. :)

I wonder how many it would take to cover a rally circuit. If they can cover an entire ski run, I suppose the machines could handle it.

Though, really if ever there was a rain-or-shine sporting event, it would be rally racing. They won't cancel due to no snow. It does feel weird to hope for bad weather though.

not good...but sticky'd anyways....GO SUBARU

Why not change to intermediates????

Bill

Awww, you don't have to sticky! Monte is next weekend!!! We got the cart before the horse here!

I'll bump accordingly!!


In other news....

Check out the WRC.com site, they redesigned it.

I've been noticing an overall trend over the past few years of less and less snow- global warming? Probably not, but it just doesn't snow like it used to. In fact didn't they just move some of the stages in search of more snow? Is it too late to have Rally Sweeden in NoCal? :D Let's just hope Feb brings the white stuff. Till then we have the Monte to enjoy, and Dakar.

I don't suppose they could use some snow making machines. :)

I wonder how many it would take to cover a rally circuit. If they can cover an entire ski run, I suppose the machines could handle it.

Though, really if ever there was a rain-or-shine sporting event, it would be rally racing. They won't cancel due to no snow. It does feel weird to hope for bad weather though.

um, not possible. rally stages are hundreds of miles long, and ski hills are a lot easier AND have the water and high pressure air hookups on the hill.

Also not possible because some of the stages cross frozed lakes.

If it stays like this, this might happen

Edit: <insert picture of STi on Ice right here>



;)

they are going to prohibit remote linking? :huh:
seriously, Sweden has said that running the rally at any time other than witer would cause undo damage to the roads and would make the costs of hosting unacceptable.
IIRC,
Rik

I've been noticing an overall trend over the past few years of less and less snow- global warming?


I don't know man... -30 here in minot, north dakota today..

Solberg might have a chance if turns out to be a gravel rally!! *duck*



























;) j/k

Solberg might have a chance if turns out to be a gravel rally!!

Actually if they cancel it it will work to Petter's advantage since he sucks on snow.

Spikey no worky on gravel.

Exactly. :devil:


-Mark
MAPmotors.com

http://www.vf.se/newvf/docs/visa.asp?textID=49875

Not getting any better.

Actually if they cancel it it will work to Petter's advantage since he sucks on snow.

Yeah- what's up with that anyway!?!?
Last I heard, Petter came from Norway!
You know, as in "out of the land of the ice and snow..."

... and what country is closest to Norway?
Oh, I know this one- SWEDEN! :lol:

Petter should totally kick arse on the snow...
Russ R

No, the funny thing is his wife Pernilla is Swedish :lol:

Spydeberg Norway (Petter's home) is only about 150miles from the rally site.

Stig Olaf Walfridsson(Mobil1 Evo5 privateer) I believe is a relative of Pernilla.

Right- so even more reasons Petter should rawwwk on snow!
But... :confused:

Russ R

Take some of our Ohio snow, we'll trade for the warm weather!!

I just got some more news that it has snowed a little, unexpectedly in Karlstad and in Hagfors (115km north).

Temps are hovering around 30*F dropping to 20*F overnight.

Well, it's been snowing here in Germany the last few days. According to this http://www.wrc.com/page/BreakingNewsDetail/0,,10111~618024,00.html there was "significant" snow across Sweden this past weekend. Fingers crossed.

TRS

Bad news.


-------------------------------------------------
SpeedTV.com Program Schedule:

FIA World Rally Championship

Monte Carlo
Fri, Feb 11 3:00AM
Monte Carlo
Sat, Feb 12 8:30PM
Sweden
Sun, Feb 20 11:00PM
Sweden
Sun, Feb 20 12:00AM

-------------------------------------------------


It looks like they are currently planning on a week delay between the finish of the rally and the broadcast of it. Also, while they are currently showing it being a 90 minute show (the second listing is from 12:00a - 12:30a), they are not doing a same day rebroadcast.

I missed recording the 11 pm showing this week, but recorded the 3 am showing. During the 3 am broadcast, there weren't any Subaru comercials that I can remember. Was this the same at 11? If so, I would say that is a pretty big reason for the change in time slot/delay, as subaru had to be pumping a good bit of advertising money into the shows last year.

My only hope is that they change the schedule for this rally just as they changed from the original 1 hour slot to the 1.5 hour slot for Monte Carlo.

-Cliff

Bad news.

I missed recording the 11 pm showing this week, but recorded the 3 am showing. During the 3 am broadcast, there weren't any Subaru comercials that I can remember. Was this the same at 11? If so, I would say that is a pretty big reason for the change in time slot/delay, as subaru had to be pumping a good bit of advertising money into the shows last year.

My only hope is that they change the schedule for this rally just as they changed from the original 1 hour slot to the 1.5 hour slot for Monte Carlo.

-Cliff

That is bad news. I'm very surprised that Speed's ratings have been so bad but then, I seldom visit boards other than Subie-related ones so I don't know whether others buzz about it as much as we do.

I'd venture a guess that since Subaru's current goal is to see the new model, Tribeca, become successful, it will make its biggest ad push on networks with target demographics closer to that of potential Tribeca buyers. Expect less Subie advertising on Speed, more on...oh, say, HGTV, Food Network, or the Travel Channel. They'll probably remain an advertising mainstay on The Weather Channel.

Ed

Yep, they had a freak snow storm last weekend there. It' snowed anywhere between 10-20cm in the Varmland area.

I see Thomas Radstrom will be without a car. He was slated to drive a Prodrive Subaru WRC for Olsbergs, but Prodrive used that car for Monte Carlo and it had developed engine and tranny problems. They may not have it done by the time of the rally.

Also news from rally-live.com:
Jani Paasonen will drive for Skoda in the Swedish ...while Armin Schwarz recovers from a injury he got from the Monte Carlo Rally

Things are looking better


-------------------------------------------------
SpeedTV.com Program Schedule:

FIA World Rally Championship

Sweden Sun, Feb 13 11:00PM (SDD)
-------------------------------------------------
SpeedTV.com Program Guide

Sunday : February 13, 2005

Time Program
11:00 pm FIA World Rally Sweden (SDD)
12:00 am NASCAR Edition Speed News
-------------------------------------------------



As of right now, we have the same day broadcasts back, but its listed as a 1 hour show, and there is no late replay. I personally feel it would be fairly tough to condense 3 days of racing into a 1 hour show, especially with the integratoin of the Rally Magazine content into the standard broadcast. One thing I personally like is when they do extended in car/on car segments across a section of course. These 4-5 minute pieces are usually pretty interesting to watch, and give a real feel of the course, opposed to the standard car blasting by shot, or the quick 30-60 second in car views. I would think in a shorter broadcast, they would have to lose these bits, in order to cram in all the crashes, mechanical failures, interviews, etc... that the broadcast needs to be entertaining.

-Cliff

Things are looking better



As of right now, we have the same day broadcasts back, but its listed as a 1 hour show, and there is no late replay. I personally feel it would be fairly tough to condense 3 days of racing into a 1 hour show, especially with the integratoin of the Rally Magazine content into the standard broadcast. One thing I personally like is when they do extended in car/on car segments across a section of course. These 4-5 minute pieces are usually pretty interesting to watch, and give a real feel of the course, opposed to the standard car blasting by shot, or the quick 30-60 second in car views. I would think in a shorter broadcast, they would have to lose these bits, in order to cram in all the crashes, mechanical failures, interviews, etc... that the broadcast needs to be entertaining.

-Cliff


FYI, 5 years ago they fit 3 days of racing into a 1/2 hour show, and it was BETTER! (IMO) The shows used to have a one week delay which gave the producers more time to edit the footage and find the best shots. They used to have just the right balance of in car and other shots as well as some parts that were set to cool background music, they were works of art. I still have the tapes and when I watch them I feel I get more sense of the rally than the current shows, (there would even be more footage showing the scenery of the country they are in). The shows these days, you can tell they are rushing to put the footage together, and although it has gotten better the past year or so, I still find the shows boring compared to the shows from 5+years ago.

Having longer shows is nice, but I will take quality over quantity


Right now the biggest bummer is the 11pm time frame, makes it a bad time to go over to friends houses to watch it

Stig Olaf Walfridsson(Mobil1 Evo5 privateer) I believe is a relative of Pernilla.

I believe he is her uncle. From all I've heard Pernilla's a fair hand behind the wheel as well.

Unless I've totally lost track of the days, Shakedown should be finished by now. Anyone have any info on the times?

Nope. Shakedown is Thursday (2/17) on the Rada stage just outside the Service Park.

Top 20 Entries for Sweden:
1 LOEB Sébastien - ELENA Daniel Citroën Xsara WRC A8
2 DUVAL François - PREVOT Stéphane Citroën Xsara WRC A8
3 GARDEMEISTER Toni - HONKANEN Jakke Ford Focus WRC A8
4 SOLBERG Henning - MENKERUD CATO Ford Focus WRC A8
5 SOLBERG Petter - MILLS Philip Subaru Impreza WRC A8
6 SARRAZIN Stéphane - GIRAUDET Denis Subaru Impreza WRC A8
7 GRONHOLM Marcus - RAUTIAINEN Timo Peugeot 307 WRC A8
8 MARTIN Markko - PARK Michael Peugeot 307 WRC A8
9 ROVANPERA Harri - PIETILAINEN Risto Mitsubishi Lancer WRC A8
10 GALLI Gigi - D'AMORE Guido Mitsubishi Lancer WRC A8
11 EKSTRÖM Mattias - BERGMAN Stephan Skoda Fabia WRC A8
12 TUOHINO Janne - MARKKULA Mikko Skoda Fabia WRC A8
14 WARMBOLD Antony - ORR Michael Ford Focus WRC A8
15 ATKINSON Chris - MACNEALL Glenn Subaru Impreza WRC A8
16 PAASONEN Jani - VAINIKKA Jani Skoda Fabia WRC A8
17 KRESTA Roman - TOMANEK Jan Ford Focus WRC A8
18 SOHLBERG Kristian - LINDSTRÖM kaj Ford Focus WRC A8
19 CARLSSON Daniel - ANDERSSON Mattias Peugeot 307 WRC A8
20 RÄDSTROM Thomas - SKALLMAN Jörgen Subaru Impreza WRC A8

Nope. Shakedown is Thursday (2/17) on the Rada stage just outside the Service Park.

D'oh, I'm a week ahead of myself! I feel like a dork now. Though shouldn't that be Thursday (2/10), since the rally is 2/11 - 13?

D'oh, I'm a week ahead of myself! I feel like a dork now. Though shouldn't that be Thursday (2/10), since the rally is 2/11 - 13?

duh. yeah. I must have drank the same stupid juice you did for lunch today! ;)

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Repo rting from teh
WRC LIVE!1!!1!one!!!


w00t! :banana:

Snow update?

Snow update?

I'm currently in Gavle Sweden. Stockholm was icy and cold. Oddly, I'll be with the Skoda works team hospitality. My buddy turns out to be a motocross buddies with Mattias Ekstrom.

The word is in Hagfors that the rally is good to go. Enough frozen ice on the road. I'll be partying my ass tonight. It's 5am here. I cant sleep b/c of jetlag.

Up further north in Ostersund, there is 2m of snow.

-WRXed

the word is that the drivers were out for recce and they don't like the roads at all. I'm heading to Uddeholm tomorrow to get ready for the rally!

-WRXed

from www.rally-live.com
Petter fastest in shakedown :)
From 8:00 to 11:00 this Thursday morning, the usual World Rally Championship drivers took part to the shakedown in preparation for the Swedish Rally.
The action took place in Rada, which is around 5 km south of Hagfors, the location of the service park. The 4 km course is well known by the drivers since it was used last year as well.
No major incident happened during this test, the drivers spent most of the time trying to fine-tune the set up of their cars for tomorrow.
Even if we cannot give too much value to the times recorded by the drivers, since the main purpose of the shakedown is to set up the cars more than anything else, it is still interesting to know that Petter Solberg was the fastest this morning, followed by Sebastien Loeb and Francois Duval...

Rad. I cant wait for the rally to start.

BTW, what would everyone reccomend to stay up to date on the status of the rally? I heard that we can no longer listen to the rally, so is wrc.com the best bet?

If you're ready to click furiously, then wrc.com is still your best bet. You have to pay for the live scoring service from them. The same with rally-live.com :furious:

Overall standings after SS6: (still running)

1. Solberg
2. Gronholm +0.1s
3. Loeb +12.6s
4. Galli +15.5s
5. Duval +28.8s
6. Martin + 35.2s

Top 9 are separated by less than a minute!!! :eek:

BTW, what would everyone reccomend to stay up to date on the status of the rally? I heard that we can no longer listen to the rally, so is wrc.com the best bet?

You can get rally radio if you are willing to pay for the WRC+ service. The splits are all on the pay service as well. You can get a free 14 day trial if you want to check it out. You will have to register with a credit card, though, and if you don't want to subscribe you have to cancel before the end of the 14 days or else your credit card will be charged.

For free sites, SWRT.com is good. And, just to make it convenient for all the Subbie fans, the Subaru drivers are highlighted, so it's easy to pick them out quickly. Mitsubishi has a site which is also really good, but I keep losing the URL for it. WRC.com will also list the classifications as drivers clear the stages.

Petter leading by .1 second... We may see the rally lead swap on a superspecial. It's nice to have a rally where just about every points scoring position is still up for a fight at the end of the first day.

end of day 1 and to say it's close is an understatement, plus a Mits is in 3rd.

Best way to follow live updates is through the mitsu page

http://202.235.200.46/mitsubishi/05s/ssresult.html

or the SWRT page

http://www.swrt.com/36934.html

Both have live up-to-the-minute stage times.

end of day 1 and to say it's close is an understatement, plus a Mits is in 3rd.
...and 8th!

Pos Driver Vehicle Leader Diff
1 GRÖNHOLM 307 WRC 00:00:00.0
2 SOLBERG Impreza WRC 2004 00:00:00.2
3 LOEB Xsara 00:00:10.2
4 GALLI Lancer WR05 00:00:18.9
5 DUVAL Xsara 00:00:28.0
6 MÄRTIN 307 WRC 00:00:36.9
7 GARDEMEISTER Focus RS WRC 04 00:00:57.4
8 ROVANPERÄ Lancer WR05 00:00:58.3

http://www.swrt.com/cpimages/678361.jpg

The best live internet radio coverage of the rally is definitely not WRC.com.

Try http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/Radiosporten/nyhetssidor/index.asp?nyheter=1&programid=2152

instead. Fantastic. Live interviews with the drivers, and commentators who really know their stuff!

- Christian

Thank You!!!!

I signed up for the free 14 day trial but I cant figure out the stage splits and their time systems for the life of me. Their numbers are way off from what everywhere else is saying. For stage one their end time was 7.054 or somethign like that. Can anyone help me interrpreut?

Anyone know of any english language sites for live coverage ? I'm in the US and cant get my cc to work for the wrc+ sign up.

Does anyone know what the real deal is on the Speed coverage? My cable guide shows a 90-minute broadcast, this Sunday. But this is contradicted by information that someone posted from the Speed Web site. Hmmm...

Kevin

prolly will be 90 min cfoverage on sunday..just like how monte carlo was 90 min coverage on sunday. my cable box guide info shows 90 min on sunday too..so i'm not too worried

Petter is in 1st place by 8 seconds over Gronholm going into the super special, he put 9 seconds on everyone on the last stage. Up by 24 seconds over Loeb who is in 3rd place. Should be interesting tommorrow between him and Gronholm. Atkinson had consistent top 10 stage times today and is sitting in 9th. He had one 4th place stage time. Sarrazin is pretty far back.

Toshi Arai has a pretty big lead in the PWRC race .

Man, Petter's just nuts. At the end of the last stage he said that going into the stage his tires were toast. So he played with the diffs and drove completely opposite to his normal style and just stormed the stage. Classic stuff.

Loeb's engine doesn't sound right after that last stage. He still has to run the superspecial, but after that he should be able to make it back to Service.

I'm impressed with what Atkinson did today. He moved from outside the top 15 into 9th by the end of the day. Not bad for someone who has basically no snow experience.

Lots of snow predicted for tonight. It should be another great day tomorrow.

Yeah I was really hoping that Atkinson could overtake Rovenpera in the last couple stages but Rovenpera had good stages so it's sitting at about a 25 second gap. Looks like Atkinson was passed up for 9th and is in 10th now.

Gronholm was funny when they interviewed him after the last stage when they told him Petter had put 9 seconds on him. "I hate that stage, I don't like it at all."

Galli went off and did some trans damage I guess, he fell back to 8th, last in the Superspecial.

Wow Solberg kicked everyone's butt on the superspecial.

From the end of day interview:

Interviewer: How confident are you feeling?

Petter: Well, I'm confident of course. Everyone knows Marcus, he have also quite big... uh, big...

Marcus: How do you know that?

Interviewer: Big what?

Petter: Well, your wife. But anyway...

^ ^ :lol:

The interviews really add that special something that make it worth watchin all the more :D

I'm proud to see Petter driving so focused this time around.

From the end of day interview:

Interviewer: How confident are you feeling?

Petter: Well, I'm confident of course. Everyone knows Marcus, he have also quite big... uh, big...

Marcus: How do you know that?

Interviewer: Big what?

Petter: Well, your wife. But anyway...


bahaha! I bet that one wont make the speed tv show :lol:

It seems Petter's making the one's who said he sucks on snow take back their words... bemani, boxered, ... me :D

Petter is damn funny. haha

And damn fast. :)

It seems Petter's making the one's who said he sucks on snow take back their words... bemani, boxered, ... me :DYeah, but it's not REALLY a snow rally this year. ;)

Sounds like Petter just bagged the rally, providing he doesn't bunge it... Marcus went off-road, and may have lost a wheel. With Sebastien's engine running on only three cylinders he's certainly not staging any kind of comeback, and everyone else is more than two minutes down.

Very funny quote from Petter after stage 17. "No reason to push, I'm driving like my mother now" :lol: :lol: :lol:

Looks like Petter has it.............Loeb is second though to keep a points lead.

Loeb is out too! So much for an exciting race to the finnish

After Gronholm went out, there was no more battle, Loeb wasn't going to push to catch Solberg, so they were on cruise mode. I heard a sound clip of the engine from yesterday, and it wasn't good, and there isn't really anything they can do to fix it, I'm surprised he did as well as he did today and it lasted as long as it did.

Hate to see mechanical DNFs but with Loeb going out it puts Solberg right back in the hunt, couldn't have been a better result for him.

It looked like Atkinson was ready to overtake Gallo or 8th, but something must he lost a ton of time on one stage and dropped to 21st.

Petter Solberg took the victory on the Uddeholm Swedish Rally this afternoon, taking the victory by over 2 minutes, after his nearest rivals, Marcus Gronholm and Sebastien Loeb, both retired during the third and final leg.

Solberg, who had been battled with Gronholm on and off since the start on Friday, was finally able to take it easy after SS16, when the Finn went off the road in his Peugeot 307, losing the left front wheel in the process.

After that the Norwegian eased off, although the retirement of Loeb before SS19, more than doubled his advantage over his nearest rival.

Markko Martin ended up second and after a rather uneventful event for the Estonian it was a good boost, as he continues to learn the 307.

It was also some consolation for Peugeot, who were no doubt not too pleased with his team-mate.

Toni Gardemeister completed the podium, the Finn getting another top-three result for Ford in only his second event.

His team-mate, Henning Solberg also finished in the points, in fifth, around 15 seconds or so, further down the road, while Roman Kresta took the final drivers' point in eighth, in the third Focus.

Harri Rovanpera took fourth for Mitsubishi, to justify his position as team leader. Rovanpera had been rather shown up by team-mate, Gigi Galli on Friday however in the end he got the upper hand, although to be fair the Italian had a few technical issues yesterday, which dropped him down the leader-board.

Galli finished seventh, one place behind, Daniel Carlsson, in the third works 307.

Skoda duo, Jani Paasonen and Mattias Ekstrom completed the top ten, with Antony Warmbold eleventh, the top privateer. The only other works drivers at the finish were Francois Duval, in 12th, Stephane Sarrazin, in 13th and Chris Atkinson, who ended up 19th.

In addition to Gronholm and Loeb, Janne Tuohino was also forced out, the Swede retiring after losing a wheel in the penultimate test.

In the Production Car WRC category meanwhile Toshi Arai led from start to finish, finishing one place behind overall Group N winner, Jukka Ketomaki.

pete.

:D congrats to Petter, Phil and SWRT :D on the win :D

Right On!!
http://www.firmaveiviseren.no/grafikk/solberg.gif

haha. Good jorb Petter!

Well, it was a great rally. My first WRC event, but it seemed well run. And it was a "snow" rally, just not as much in the past. Some stages had less ice/snow than others though. I made it on Swedish TV for a few seconds while the camera panned around Colin's Crest... Thanks to WRXedUSA for setting me up with a place to stay...just down the road from SS Malta.

TRS

i love the way after EVERY stage, even if petter wins it the frist thing you hear passing the finish line is *BEEP* :lol:

he swears a LOT :D

It seems Petter's making the one's who said he sucks on snow take back their words... bemani, boxered, ... me :D

I see brown stuff on the road???? Where was the snow??

We all know damn well that Petter would've rolled the car like Marcus if the road was all white :devil:

I see brown stuff on the road???? Where was the snow??

We all know damn well that Petter would've rolled the car like Marcus if the road was all white :devil:

well, some stages were whiter than others.... :p

Congrats to Solberg, but given his history, it's just too stressful to watch him. I keep waiting for the crash. :lol:

Kevin

Congrats to Solberg, but given his history, it's just too stressful to watch him. I keep waiting for the crash. :lol:

Kevin

Oh man I know exactly how you feel. I get so tense watching the in car footage of him, just waiting for him to slide off the road and just demolish that poor Impreza WRC. But congrats to him, I was in a great mood today thanks to his win last night :D

Yeah, I actually dislike watching Petter's footage ... until they say something like he was 10s off the leader's pace or something that indicates that he didn't dnf from stupidity.

pfffft..I knew Granholm was going to eat it..he has zero patience.

I see brown stuff on the road???? Where was the snow??

We all know damn well that Petter would've rolled the car like Marcus if the road was all white :devil:


The last day the drivers complained of too much snow...(some snow fell that night)...that was when Marcus lost it when he was pushing to stop losing time to Petter. I've got plenty of video of icy, snowy stages, and I walked a few KMs of stages where the inch or two of ice was worn away since a lot of the stages were run twice. Given the 40+ cars in the rally some stages had a lot of gravel showing by the end. Regardless, there weren't too many crashes that caused retirements.

TRS

Solberg's fans are the biggest dorks ever! How horrible was that song?! :eek: I don't care how much I like a driver, I'm not going to demean myself singing horriblely lame chants about him! I agree that he's nicer and more fun than say, Marcus, but that doesn't make wearing two flags on your head cool or justified!!! :lol:

AK

Solberg's fans are the biggest dorks ever! How horrible was that song?! :eek: I don't care how much I like a driver, I'm not going to demean myself singing horriblely lame chants about him! I agree that he's nicer and more fun than say, Marcus, but that doesn't make wearing two flags on your head cool or justified!!! :lol:

AK

You mean like other sports fans :lol:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/2002/playoffs/news/2002/02/05/patriots_parade_ap/lg_pats_ap.jpg

When English isnt your first language, its hard to be creative with it. Try making a cool chant in Mexican or whatever.

You mean like other sports fans :lol:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/2002/playoffs/news/2002/02/05/patriots_parade_ap/lg_pats_ap.jpg


Hello. lol.

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/raiders/pictures/1999/10/25/raider%20-264x217-fan.jpg

When English isnt your first language, its hard to be creative with it. Try making a cool chant in Mexican or whatever.

Is chanting in Mexican harder than chanting in Canadian? :huh:

Solberg's fans are the biggest dorks ever! How horrible was that song?! :eek: I don't care how much I like a driver, I'm not going to demean myself singing horriblely lame chants about him! I agree that he's nicer and more fun than say, Marcus, but that doesn't make wearing two flags on your head cool or justified!!! :lol:

AK
That's nothing

You gotta hear: The Tommi Makinen Song! (http://members.tripod.com/tommi_makinen/downloads/download.htm)

Is chanting in Mexican harder than chanting in Canadian? :huh:

uhh, no, but I dont know Mexican very well. See? :D

Solberg's fans are the biggest dorks ever! How horrible was that song?! :eek: I don't care how much I like a driver, I'm not going to demean myself singing horriblely lame chants about him! I agree that he's nicer and more fun than say, Marcus, but that doesn't make wearing two flags on your head cool or justified!!! :lol:

AK


i hope your not talking about this song, which i think is sweet.



You are my Solberg, my Petter solberg
you make me happy, when skys are grey
On Snow and Gravel
Flat out you Travel,
Oh please don't take my Petter Away.



and is that cheech singing in the makinen song? :lol:

When English isnt your first language, its hard to be creative with it. Try making a cool chant in Mexican or whatever.
Some of those Norwegians speak English better than a lot of Americans! Why do Petter's fans speak better English than he does?

OMG, that Tommi song is horrible!!! People have no dignity!

Some of those Norwegians speak English better than a lot of Americans! Why do Petter's fans speak better English than he does?

OMG, that Tommi song is horrible!!! People have no dignity!
Go Go, Tommi Go, Lucky Fellow!

Ok, I'm back to civilization. I when snowmobiling in Lapland for 4 days after the rally. There is no internet in the arctic circle. Dogsleds outnumbered Volvos.

How was the rally?? Excellent. There was JUST enought snow on the roads to make it happen. On friday, Hara was getting pretty tore up.

Who was fastest?? IMHO Gigi Galli. He never seemed to use the brake. Biggest disappointment. Skoda. Petter Never seemed to let off even after he sealed the event.

Stages I viewed:

Friday: Hara & Hagfors Sprint
Saturday: Uddeholm Service Park & Sunsjon, Hagfors2
Sunday: Rammen1 Malta2

I did jabber with Toshi Arai. I asked about the new SpecC STi. He seemed to really like it. It seemed much quicker than the STi from 2004. It sounded mean as ****.

Pics to follow in a seperate thready thread.

ps. if i have to hear the petter solberg song one more time, I'll puke.

-wrxed

We did Sweden - it was awesome as normal. :)

Although not a complete snow rally with 1m snow banks, 80% of the stages were covered in thick ice before the Weds & Sat snowfall.
Surprised there weren't more accidents as without snow banks the stages are more dangerous (IMHO).

Stars of the Rally - Gali - wow !, Atkinson - definate future champion, Kristian Sohlberg (Focus 03) - lying 7th before retirnig!

Getting around was easy as we have excellent maps and we stayed amongst thge stages at a ski resort (some stages within 4km) - better than travelling 1 1/2 hrs from Karlstad !! :lol:

Thurs - shakedown
Fri - ss3 Torntorp, ss5 Hara, ss7 Hagfors Sprint
Sat - ss8 Lesjofors, ss10 Fredriksberg, ss 12 Lesjo2, ss14 Hagfors Sprint
Sun - ss15 Sundsjon, ss19 Rammen, Ceremonial Finish
......and a very big rush to Stockholm in the snow !! :eek:

We organised 24 people spectating on the rally from UK & Ireland so there was plenty of work before play.

Hey some shots of your Petter from Sweden here: http://rallyplanet.com/index.php?pid=25619

nice pics. I like this one http://rallyplanet.com/index.php?&pid=26058

Fanatasic rally!!! Way to go Petter. Too bad Marcus wrecked, because that was an epic battle, but such is rally, when you need to make up time with only a few stages left, sometimes you take it a bit too far. Excellent to see Petter get some solid points early on, especially with Loeb DNF'ing this boades well for the championship. Also great to see Ford at the top of the points table, since their program is in such doubt.

I am really impressed with Gigi as well, hopefully the Mitsu will continue to improve and we'll see more of him as the season progresses.

I also want to see Martin and Duval step it up as they become more comfortable in their respective cars.

WRXedUSA : wow man, I am jealous. Rally Sweeden then boarding for 4 days in the Artic? Lucky bastage!! That is too f'ing cool!!

Also great to see Ford at the top of the points table, since their program is in such doubt.
Where have you been?!?!? :huh: Ford commited to rallying for another 4 years after dropping the F1 program. They're more commited to the WRC than any other team in the WRC... except for, well, Subaru. Now that most of Ford's luxo companies are offering AWD as well as the new Freestar and FiveHundred being AWD-only vehicles, from a marketing point-of-view it makes sense to have a WRC team, arguably the pinnacle of AWD cars (not trucks, cars).

under a rock? good to hear Ford is sticking with it.

One thing though, I wouldn't put TOO much faith in the "commitment." If the wind changes direction, the board of directors could pull the plug tomorrow and there isn't a damn thing Malcolm Wilson or anyone else could do to stop it.

One small comment....

WRC rev limters. Some of you may have known that Harri Rovanpera was driving without 5th gear for sunday. In perhaps the meanest, devilish sound any racing machine coule make, he hit the rev limiter on a long streach in the distance on Malta2.

Gsus. If you think hitting the limiter in you Impreza autox'ing is somthing, imagine this.

WOW