Rally Sweden 2013

Thanks Dimvii!

@rallyper:
Places from the video you asked.
6min17: Finish of SS Sagen, only 20m after the corner there was the finish line.
6min21: SS Rämmen, public area 4. Best way to approach it is when you're coming from North, at the junction walk a few hundred meters back on the stage. Good place to combine with Sagen. :)
7min12 and 8min12: SS Torsby, public area 2, best way to approach is from before the public area (green road you see on program book), then it is maybe 100m to walk further on the stage, nice place!

Returned home late Monday night from my first travel to Rally Sweden and I must say I've never seen so many Volvo Sport Wagons over a weekend than I did now...

Seriously, it was very nice and warm visit to a WRC rally, at many times the atmosphere was hjärtliga. Wintry conditions definitely gives its own twist to the spectator behaviour as at times it seemed more about a camping trip than your normal let's-go-see-rally thing. Like in Vargåsen on Friday the Norwegian party who had put up their tent on the stage the weekend before, stayed there overnight and planned to stay the next night too (being too drunk to drive). But they had everything from chainsaw to cut wood for fire to a portable outhouse with picture of a king on the wall. On same stage we ended up as a party of Finns, Belgian, German and Greek trying to start a fire of wet wood in Swedish forest without any proper gear, but with little help we managed. Historic cars kept passing us as we kept the fire alive, Petter Solberg sideways in his MkII. I didn't feel cold at all. Apart from the actual rallying, this kind of things will stuck my mind for good. My clothes still smell of smoke.

We started our rally trip on Tuesday evening, arrived Stockholm on early Wednesday morning and drove to Uddeholm. On Wednesday we stopped at shakedown recce in the afternoon and also recced the part of Vargåsen we planned. I think it was well known that Mikkelsen did the recce-only, but Elfyn Evans did that too. No sign of Henning there though, how did he do the recce?

On Thursday we did shakedown, practise runs at the jump near the finish and then walked back towards start only to find Nikara's beached car there. Watched QS there at that corner. Then visited service park which at the time was very sleepy. Citroen and VW as some private teams too had their pits covered by plastic walls to keep the heat inside. But hey, no Malcolm's kitchen and also NO plastic wrap to keep the temperatures better for mechanics. Small thing or not, but for sure this kind of stuff seperates M-Sport from the two bigger brothers. After service park we opted to skip ceremonies in Karlstad and do spectator recce for Torsby, Rämmen and Fredriksberg. We skipped the SSS on Friday too. I really don't see why they have to take the rally away from Hagfors area for the evening. They'd had just us good spectator stage in Hagfors Sprint, I think.

Friday was all easy at Vargåsen. Both runs with historics and making friends in between. Second run we did at a cut-out area with nice long view of the cars approaching sideways from the corner, then two corners and an exit just in front of us. That whole part of the stage (some 5-7 kms before Colin's Crest) is full of nice corners. As we left I was surprised the number of drunken spectators, some seriously drunk. OK, we definitely have that in Finland too, but that seemed more there. For drunken Swedes and Norwegians you have to credit for being good-spirited and full of humour, so they don't bother that much.

For Saturday it was Sågen 1, the first tighter left at the start of the stage. That made it possible for a fast exit to Rämmen 1. At Rämmen it was almost a close call as we had to park the car just before the village of Gustav Adolf and that meant a walk of - say - 2,5 kms to our desired place and it was 25 minutes to the first car. Gladly in Sweden they are not too strict about walking on stage before the cars, so it's possible to move at late moment too. The nature of spectator control came most apparent in Fredriksberg 2 at the famous jumps straight. On the spectator guide it's the only place I noticed mark with a note "important to obey marshalls' orders". First car had been 2-3 minutes into the stage when a group of drunken fans partied a bit at the middle of the road, group of marshalls just looking over and one even taking it on video having a laugh. But nothing happened :-) Except the place was definitely the best place I stayed at the rally. Breathtaking. You could see the cars a long from the top of the last jump, the intesity builds in and then as the cars approach the jump, they go pass you very high speed and jump some 35-45 metres easily. That is why I love rallying! Was a long drive back from the stage though, first on rather small and narrow forest roads. By the way, what do you think, is 50 SEK (5,8 euros) too much for a roadside parking? It was fixed price everywhere.

Sunday it was a long drive for the first stage, which for us was Finnskogen 1 from the start. We stayed at one of the parts in the beginning of the stage where you have nice view over a selection of flowing corners. Leaving after Ogier without running we made it to Kirkenaer 1 to see top 6. At Kirkenaer you can see and talk with drivers during the regroup, have a meal, whatever. Very nice, compact place to have rallying day. From the bank you can have nice long views of the cars, for about a minute each. We however left the second early before top guys because otherwise we would've gotten stuck in the car park, and even doing it safe we managed to reach our point in near Torsby finish only 15 minutes before first car. On Sunday we had 280 kilometres on the rally route (and drive back to Stockholm in the evening), so it was a long day. I can say we saw the last jumps of the whole rally at Torsby. The part was basically an over crest, but for especially Juho and Jari-Matti, it was a jump over crest. Nice part to end the rally with.

Competion-wise, it's basically all been said. I haven't inspected the stage times that close yet and in the forest you rarely have a signal in your phone for internet results, but it was clear from the start that Ogier and VW will dominate. Polo ran well on JML too, but for Ogier it was so much smoother. On Friday Ogier still had a bit of aggression in his driving, but on the rest of the rally he simply just controlled the situation. In a way it was shame how the leaderboard got stable so early in the rally, and also differences in top 3 we huge for a rally like Rally Sweden. Also a shame for us from Finnish point of view how basically all our drivers underachieved. First time since 1992 with no Finns on the Swedish podium... Latvala did okey, though he was clearly slower than his team mate. Also, I expected much more from Hänninen. Okey, he's still learning the WRC car, and for his limited experience in the car and limited recent experience on snow, he did well coping with Novikov for example, but still, one fastest time would've been a minimum from him. All I hope now is that he'll get a handful of events to prove his speed again. And Tidemand. Surprisingly mature drive from him on Friday, the two passes I saw were much cleaner than on shakedown/QS. He would've deserved more mileage. Also must mention Neuville for keeping it steady and on the road.

Also interesting to read from here how you praise Yazeed's speed. Behind WRCs, Gröndal was definitely the only driver driving his car to the maximum and therefor being nice to watch. Yazeed and partly Solowow were clearly on top 3 of the rest, but not worth a special mention anyhow. It was shame there was no competition in WRC-2 or no hungry young gun on 2WD, for example.

As a whole it was very nice experience. I met many friends, had some laughs, saw many nice performances and so on. I'm quite sure I'll return, if not next year then later.

Thanks for everyone that helped me with tips, pointing places from videos and all.

And here's my friend's set of pictures from the rally:

rallirinki.kuvat.fi

http://rallirinki.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Ral...PG?img=smaller

http://rallirinki.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Ral...PG?img=smaller

http://rallirinki.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Ral...PG?img=smaller

http://rallirinki.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Ral...PG?img=smaller

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kielder

One more...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...62533989_n.jpg

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/5200/26027310.jpg

my pictures from rally sweden 2013

day1 (ss karlstad)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9469187&type=1

day2 (ss4/ss6/service)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9469187&type=1

day3 (ss9/ss12/ss15)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9469187&type=1

Quote:

Originally Posted by WRC1

my pictures from rally sweden 2013

day1 (ss karlstad)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9469187&type=1

day2 (ss4/ss6/service)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9469187&type=1

day3 (ss9/ss12/ss15)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9469187&type=1

nice photos,like this one,tenths before crash with blocked wheels
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...69525959_n.jpg

Forgot to say in my original post, we were a bit surprised at being asked to pay 50 SEK to park at every stage when we'd already paid 500 SEK for a Rally Pass! Ridiculous if you ask me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommeke_B

My photos of this amazing rally are online.http://rally-image.be/foto/0338/images/073.jpg

Tom, sure that's the final corner in Mitandersfors? Were you the guy in a Media vest standing behind us?

plenty moments!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=qyCybw8prq0

haha, great how they rollover novikovs car to get it out of the ditch :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by dimviii

plenty moments!

Now I understand why Novikov's windscreen is cracked :D