Finally, the Scandinavian driver Petter Solberg has won the Swedish Rally! After a hard fight for over two days with Marcus Gronholm (who finally crashed) and Sebastien Loeb (who had engine failure) the opposition fell away and the Norwegian won by over two minutes. “Our strategy worked perfectly,” he explained, “we carefully planned how to tackle this event, told ourselves not to worry if the fight got tough, and it all paid off.” Second place went to Markko Martin despite gearbox problems at midway, and third place went to Toni Gardemeister, who suffered badly on the first day on account of fresh snow on the roads. It was a spectacular success for Pirelli, using a revolutionary glue-less tyre studding system and whose tyres were used by five of the top seven cars to finish, used by eight drivers from three teams, six of whom scored best times and led all the way. In the poorly supported PCWRC division, Toshihiro Arai (Spec C Subaru) led all the way, pressed hard by Mark Higgins (Spec C Subaru) on the first day, and finally won by 17 minutes in front of Angelo Medeghini (Evo VIII MR).. On event worries about the weather were happily ill founded, icy surfaces predominated though occasionally fresh show slowed the front running drivers.

74 entries were accepted for the second round of the series - a far cry from the 34 in Monte Carlo! No fewer than 16 were from registered world championship teams (six two-car teams and four extra entries) and ten “Priority 2" (manufacturer-supported entries in World Rally Cars). One disappointment was that only nine out of 21 registered contenders in the Production Car World Rally Championship were present. There was little new about the route, which was based in the forest roads around Hagfors 100km north of the base at Karlstad. The main pre-event debate, as usual, centred on the weather - and whether conditions were going to be favourable. Traditionally the scenic sights of snow have made this event popular, but more important was the condition of the roads, essentially whether there had been a long enough cold spell leading up to the event to make the roads hard enough not to be damaged by the event. Only once (in 1990) had the event been cancelled because of softness of the roads, but the memory lingered and the threat remained. The problem was that every single “expert” weather forecast seemed to predict different circumstances...

Although the longest stage this year was only 26km the greatest distance between tyre changing points was 57km, a great distance in circumstances when the abrasively hard packed ice (rather than softer snow) was expected to be the dominant surface. In these conditions the challenge is not simply the wear on tyres but the loss of studs. On winter rallies tyres wear out not so much through friction, but more because the studs heat up and then soften the tread blocks. This makes the tyres less effective and causes the studs themselves to loosen and fall out. The two main tyre suppliers Michelin and Pirelli had differing approaches. Michelin used their traditional systems, Pirelli had a newly patented system for inserting the studs. One important factor: this was the first ever world rally where, by regulation, competitors had only a single tread pattern design they could use.

So far as new regulations were concerned, this was the second event with the same engines, those used at Monte Carlo. No problems were experienced but because Armin Schwarz had retired Skoda could change one of their engines. Citroen, however, chose to retain the engine that Francois Duval had used before he retired. Schwarz had not fully recovered from his Monte Carlo crash, so there was a driver shuffle in the Skoda team while there were various other changes including Jani Paasonen being chosen as the number three driver rather than as nominated driver. Antony Warmbold now had Michael Orr beside him, his third different codriver in as many events. There was a confusion with privateer Focus WRC entries. Finnish privateer Jouni Ampuja had hoped to enter, but he had crashed his car on the Arctic Rally. Juuso Pykalisto asked if he could replace him, the Stewards agreed, but he then apparently failed to raise the necessary budget and also did not start. A strange story was about Thomas Radstrom who was offered a one-off drive with the Olsberg Subaru WRC team but turned it down as the car would be an 03 rather than an 04 car (their regular driver Tobias Johansson had an 04 car). Then Radstrom had his driving licence impounded by the authorities because he was caught driving 111kph in a 70kph limit back home. An ever stranger story concerned Daniel Carlsson. As part of his ongoing contract with Peugeot for 2005 he was entered on this event, but in a passive transmission 206WRC, by Bozian. He told Peugeot Sport he would rather stay at home than drive a non competitive car, and a big argument ensued. He claimed that Peugeot had offered some rallies in a 307WRC, and for Daniel his home event had to be one of them. The chances of his drive seemed doomed, because it was now far too late to change the entry. Eventually it transpired that the Bozian entry had never been received by the organisers on account of a broken fax machine. The organisers felt guilty and agreed to accept a late entry, which was Daniel’s miracle. The team could hardly refuse him a 307! The last laugh, however, looked like being Peugeot Sport’s. They found him an old test car, on condition Gronholm and Martin did not damage it in pre event testing. It was the oldest car they had, chassis 3, built at the start of the 307 programme for the 2004 Monte Carlo Rally.

Around the teams Ford had a most happy number two driver, Henning Solberg, brother of Petter, who had never been a fully official team driver before. At Subaru Chris Atkinson had his first works four-wheel drive entry, in awe of his new world and even more staggered that next time, in Mexico, he was to be nominated by the team, while the alternative Subaru second driver Sarrazin had a new codriver, Denis Giraudet.

For the fourth year of the Production Car World Rally Championship, nine of the 21 registered drivers elected this event as one of their qualifying events. The drivers registered for the series came from a total of 14 different countries. Various other top drivers had privately entered the Swedish, notably Skoda works driver Jan Kopecky in a Group N Mitsubishi. There was a welcome to the championship for Tobias Johansson, to be the regular driver for the Olsberg team which plan to enter all the events from now to the end of the season. 23 years old, the son of former Saab driver Erik Johansson, he served a season-long work experience apprenticeship with M-Sport in 2004.

In the rush of pre-event press conferences, the major item was the announcement that Peugeot’s Director of Communications Corrado Provera, whose part time responsibility is Director of Peugeot Sport, was leaving the company at the end of the month, making this his final rally. He gave an impassioned farewell speech, saying (tongue in cheek!) that he would not apologise for upsetting people in his career, and explaining he was giving his decision to retire before his bosses told him he had got too old to carry on! Jean-Pierre Nicolas assumes responsibility as Director of Peugeot Sport for the rest of the year, until the company withdraws from world championship competition at the end of the year. At the pre-season presentation of the PCWRC series, Subaru (who were represented by five out of the nine entries here) announced that they already had worldwide orders for more than130 2005 series “Spec C” Impreza Group N cars, three of which were among the PCWRC entry on this event. Star pre-event show was the Skoda press conference, in which reigning DTM racing champion Mattias Ekstrom was allowed to be accompanied by his partner Tina Thorner, and their famous and popular terrier pet dog whom they have named “Moss”.

Shakedown saw some surprises. After a virtual absence of any snow during recce, there were several centimeters of snow in the area, and the Hagfors service park was a bleak and windy scene. In three teams, the third works entered car beat the two nominated entries: Kresta was fastest Ford, Paasonen fastest Skoda and Daniel Carlsson beat the other Peugeots. Quickest of all was Petter Solberg, ahead of the two Citroens.

Leg 1

The weather was amazing. Wednesday had been virtually snow free, with wind that chilled anyone who strayed outdoors. Thursday had seen heavy overnight snowfall, but soon the temperatures were well above zero which meant everything was horribly wet. Friday dawned with clean skies and day-long sunshine with the stages held on packed snow surfaces. Petter Solberg, with his special glue-less studded tyres, went into the lead which he held for the first two stages but then was slowed on the third stage by some suspension changes he personally had made, which at the first service park meant Marcus Gronholm led Sebastien Loeb by 0.1 second, with Solberg the same margin again back in third! Daniel Carlsson held third place for the first two stages before he hit a rock and damaged his front left suspension, costing him a minute. Going well was Gianluigi Galli who was up to fourth after profiting from Jani Paasonen twice stalling his engine on the start lines and then by Carlsson’s misfortune. Markko Martin was originally delayed by a spin but by stage three was up to fifth. Both Gronholm and Harri Rovanpera, unused to Pirelli tyres in wintry conditions, reported difficulty in judging braking distances. Chris Atkinson arrived with a crumpled wing, a souvenir of a rock hidden in the snow. Henning Solberg suffered high oil temperature, former Mitsubishi team driver Kristian Sohlberg lost a half minute after damaging his suspension.

During the afternoon. Gronholm pulled out nearly four seconds on Solberg on the first two stages but then suffered broken stud problems on stage six which slowed him, letting Solberg ahead, but regained the lead on the short superspecial which ended the day. Star of the afternoon was Galli, getting up to 3rd place when Loeb had troubles on stage four. Loeb stalled at the start, then shortly afterwards went straight on at a junction putting all four wheels into a ditch. He was able to reverse out unaided but lost in total some 20 seconds. Loeb got back past Galli, even though Galli made best time on the final forest stage of the day, when the various Michelin drivers were having troubles, but the world champion had a lot of broken studs. Pirelli people were even more excited about Galli’s efforts than for the fight for the lead between Gronholm and Solberg. Galli was also excited. “It is hard to keep calm in the circumstances...!”

No top drivers disappeared during the day. The two nominated Fords were not so fast. Henning had a tyre explode on stage six, finishing the last five kilometres on a rim, while Toni Gardemeister just could not understand why he was unhappy with the car. Martin had a broken rim in stage four. On stage seven Antony Warmbold had the engine stop inexplicably for a minute while Francois Duval was distracted when the driver’s door on his Xsara opened. Mikko Hirvonen, now in a private Focus, had a lot of tyre troubles. Carlsson was not making much headway, complaining that the tyres felt they had no studs left, when they had. In the Skoda team, Mattias Ekstrom led Janne Tuohino by 3.3 seconds at the end of the day, after Tuohino had a scary moment when the car failed to downshift on the approach to a sharp corner. Codriver Mikko Markkula grabbed the manual gear level, and apart from the damage to the driver’s nerves, all they suffered was a broken wheel rim. The Olsbergs Subaru of Tobias Johansson had engine overheating.

At the end of the final stage of the day the overall lead for Gronholm was 0.2 seconds. Wow, what a race! Loeb was set on catching up. He had already made good ten of the 20 seconds he lost on stage four. Johansson retired overnight with engine trouble in the Olsbergs Subaru. Paasonen had dropped 20 seconds at the midday service, his wheel studs sheared but that apart the three Skoda drivers were uncannily close, separated by only 20 seconds on stage times. Sohlberg had to abandon for the day when the gearbox broke on his Focus, Latvala when he damaged the suspension.

In the PCWRC things started early. Fumio Nutahara fitted snow rather than ice tyres and went off the road, Xavier Pons lost a wheel while Joaquim Roman went missing on stage three with engine failure. Non championship Finnish privateer Jukka Ketomaki led the PCWRC cars on stage one but then Toshi Arai took momentary control ahead of Mark Higgins and late championship entry Aki Teiskonen. Angelo Medeghini had rear differential trouble and finished the day still suffering a lack of traction. Finally Riccardo Errani stopped with gearbox trouble. The urge to keep as many of them in the event, thanks to the “5-minute rule,” was as strong as ever, but with a curious twist. The Stewards following the 2005 FIA rule issued virtual times based on a rate of five minutes more than the time taken by the fastest driver in their priority category, rather than or their class. As non-championship drivers in N4 class were generally faster than those in the PCWRC, the allocated time was not in relation to the fastest in the class but the fastest driver registered in the PCWRC. (Same happened with Sohlberg, his virtual time being the same as the best time by a P2 driver). Nowadays drivers are penalised unequally for the same offence just like they used to be in rallying 50 years ago. Rallying’s traditional “overall classification” has little meaning any more! In the non-championship “also-ran” category, Andersson was the top Super 1600 driver despite losing a minute on the opening stage of the rally ahead of Jimmy Joge, who normally drives a 206WRC in national events. Peter Zachrisson, the local Suzuki driver, had a puncture on stage two and then stopped to change a flat tyre also on stage three, Wilks also punctured. Nutahara, Pons and Errani all announced their hope to restart in the morning.

Leg 2

Another change in the weather. It was now cool, cloudy and dull but the crowds thronged the stages, and between times the Service Parks, Solberg mania was increasing in intensity. The paddock rang with the irritating sounds of the Petter Solberg fan club song, based on the old lyric “You are my Sunshine”. It quite put you off your stride. As the race for the lead oscillated between Solberg and Gronholm, Peugeot’s sporting director Corrado Provera paused to speak with friends who came to wish him goodbye - but his self-imposed allocation of cigars was not allowed to be changed. “Next smoke will be at 1300. Come and see me then!" On the stages there was ice everywhere, with just a little snow and gravel in places. Loeb’s challenge back to the top took two adverse turns: on the first stage he slid into a ditch, on the second he hit a rock. On stage nine Gronholm found the stage too narrow for his wide-track car and dropped behind Solberg, even though Solberg was delayed by a failure of his hearted windscreen which caused demisting. Tuohino left overnight parc ferme in tenth place, but lost ten seconds leaving service and dropped back to 12th when there was an electrical problem, then he had the engine stall at the start of stage eight. Rovanpera said his car was still inexplicably weaving on the straights, falling from seventh to behind Gardemeister who had spun and flattened his exhaust falling from seventh to tenth.

After the first lap of two stages came snow, making a handicap for the drivers running first on the road, starting with Paasonen, then Carlsson and Kresta. “Not much fun being a snowplough”, said Paasonen’s codriver Vainikka. “There must be 4cm of fresh snow on the top of the road”. Gronholm recovered the lead on stage 11 with an advantage of just 0l.1 seconds again, Galli got back from sixth to fourth despite spins on both stages ten and 11. Loeb was not happy, “Absolutely no grip”, he complained, but the biggest drama was for Duval. After a steady run it all went wrong on stage 11. The crew swopped round their wheels after stage ten and noticed various broken rims and tyres damaged from impacts with little roadside rocks, but then on stage 11 a different tyre exploded, throwing out the mousse and forcing them to stop and change the collapsed tyre. Then followed a series of chaotic mishaps, so that they lost nearly five minutes on their rivals. They dropped from fourth to 17th, 12th in line for championship points. Another drama came to Markko Martin with transmission trouble. “Only 3rd, 4th and 5th gears were working, and there seemed to be trouble with the differentials as well”. It seemed all the oil had escaped. Midday service this year was 30 not 20 minutes, and the transmission was safely replaced in the time allowed. Kristian Sohlberg retired his JM Engineering Focus when he crashed.

On the third sector of the day Marcus pulled out a six second lead but then lost it all and more on stage 13, the last forest stage of the day. The Finn was angry at the end of the stage. “I absolutely hate this stage, I never do well here,” Marcus said. A brave journalist asked him why. “I don’t know. Yes, I do, it’s because its close to Norway!” On stage 12 Galli had a broken driveshaft and then on stage 13 he lost the hydraulic pressure to the gearbox, so the hero of the first day struggled to the end of the second day in eighth place. Ekstrom lost his power steering and dropped from eighth to16th. Perhaps the biggest news of the evening was that Loeb was reported having engine trouble. From being 12.2 seconds behind the leader after stage 12, two stages later he was 34.3, still third ahead of Martin, Gardemeister, Henning Solberg and Rovanpera. Cracking on steadily was Atkinson, making no mistakes on a most unforgiving rally, who had climbed up to tenth, behind Daniel Carlsson. Tuohino was 11th and Kresta, after going off the road, was 12th. Duval was a depressed 15th.

On the first stage of the second day, second placed PCWRC driver Mark Higgins went off the road and had to retire. There was engine damage and the team realised it would take longer than the permitted allowance to effect repairs, so retirement from the event was unavoidable. Arai, however, found another adversary, Aki Teiskonen, who was determined to press Arai as hard as he could, albeit at the start of the day from a minute behind. Medeghini found himself third, on his first rally for seven years: “I am going as slow as I can, all that matters is reaching the finish!” Only four of the nine PCWRC starters had now been able to tackle every stage.

Leg 3

Another day, different weather again! This time snow flurries and colder wind - but again, plenty of drama. At the end of day two service, Loeb’s engine troubles were examined and a failed head gasket detected. The Citroen team did what they could to limit the damage and told Loeb to try to drive carefully, hoping he could make the finish. Loeb had one item of luck: overnight over half of the distances scheduled for stages 15/18 were cancelled, so the final day was to be shorter than planned. However his 91 second ovenight lead over Martin had dwindled to 63 after the first three stages, and there was little hope he could continue. He was late out of service and completed stage 18 but that was all the reigning World Champion managed. A driver whose life got better and better through the day was Toni Gardemeister, who eventually finished third overall - and found himself leading the Drivers’ championship at the finish! In the Makes’ series Ford found themselves ahead of Peugeot and Mitsubishi in joint second place.

The hopes that Gronholm would keep up with Petter Solberg ended on the new, fast stage 16 when he rolled the car and had to abandon. Inadvertently he baulked Solberg for a while. Solberg now had a lead of a minute or so over Loeb. And when Loeb disappeared the overall lead was up to two minutes ahead of Martin. Behind them a man with a mission was Carlsson. He passed Galli into eighth place straightaway and then set off after Henning Solberg’s Ford, which he failed to catch by only 12.7 seconds at the end. The honour of being the highest-placed Swedish driver was his, however. After a splendid run, Atkinson slipped off the road three stages to go and lost over 12 minutes before he could continue. Tuohino had suspension failure on the final stage when ninth, letting teammate Paasonen into that position with Ekstrom tenth. Duval finished 12th overall, eighth in the WCR and final manufacturer scorer.

The PCWRC procession was split up when Teiskonen retired with engine trouble two stages before the finish, so only three of the nine completed the route - and another three were classified as well. This meant that second points scorer was Medeghini in his first rally for eight years, and the most important result so far for an Evo VIII MR. New 2005 versions “Spec C” Subarus finished first and third. Jukka Ketomaki led Group N virtually all the way in another “Spec C” Subaru, while PCWRC winner Arai was second Group N home. Andersson was the best two-wheel drive car in front of teammate Guy Wilks, the Peugeot 206 S1600 of Jimmy Joge and the Suzuki of Peter Zachrisson.

Martin Holmes 13th February 2005