Spectating Sweden - Tips needed please.

[curry]

G’day All,

I am organising a trip to Rally Sweden for 6 of us from Australia.

Previously I have only attended Rally NZ (simply awesome) and Rally Australia. I was wondering if I could get some spectating tips from those that have attended Sweden before. We will be staying in Flipstad and have a rental car which we will be using to get around over the Rally.

Thanks in advance

Cheers

Curry

[J4MIE]

Warm jacket.
Warm hat.
Warm boots.
Warm gloves.
Axe - for keeping warm with.
Matches.

Sorted

[Viktory]

Stages I am seeing:

Thursday:
SS1 Karlstad SSS1

Friday:
SS4 Torntorp 1
SS7 Vargåsen 1

Saturday: A lot of driving for this day...
SS9 Lesjöfors
SS12 Vargåsen 2
SS14 Lejen

Sunday:
SS16 Backa 1
SS18 Backa 2
SS20 Karlstad SSS2

[curry]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the tips.

I still haven't worked out which stages to go to yet, mainly because I didn't receive the Official Sweden Rally Magazine in the mail like they promised. When I go to Rally NZ I do a lot of driving and usual get 3 to 4 stages on the Friday with the relative smaller crowds compared to the weekend. Is this possible in Sweden, can you do the car sprint to other stages or is there too many people on the roads and does the snow slow everything down?

If my research is correct then Vargåsen contains Colin's Crest; I have read that people get here 2 hours before the first car - is this true?

Viktory, We definitely be at the Karlstad SS's and also at least one of the Vargåsen stages - from there the rest is up in the air till I get a good look at the stage maps.

J4MIE, Is it true that you buy bags of firewood from the petrol stations?

Thanks again guys.

Cheers

Curry

[Viktory]

You will not be able to get 4 stages in on any of the days sadly. If you want three stages on Friday your only option is Hara 1/2 + Hagfors Sprint (alt. Likenäs 1/2 + Hagfors Sprint, but Likenäs is very far to drive!)
Check this link: http://www.swedishrally.com/resource...ide_1_2007.pdf
Scroll down to page 18 or so and you have the itinerary with times etc. and a few pages down you have the maps for each day.
http://www.swedishrally.com/en,theroute.html
There is an overview of the route. A good benchmark for length is that from Service Park to Likenäs it is 80 km

Firewood can be bought in petrol stations, but we always take an axe and cut down smaller trees and burn that, work well, keeps you active and warm too (as J4MIE said)

Vargåsen has Colin's Crest, and people are there probably there much more than 2 hours ahead. I have actually never been there, but there are thousands of people there, it's not really a place that attracts me since I like to find more secluded spots. There are some nice jumps in the middle of Fredriksberg though.

A spot I recommend, if you don't mind walking a bit, is on Hara. I was there last year, you walk in from the start (you can park the car on a smaller road adjacent to the big road) and eventually you get to a quite steep upward slope and a nice long u-turn. It was one of the better spots I was at last year.

[J4MIE]

Firewood can be bought in petrol stations, but we always take an axe and cut down smaller trees and burn that, work well, keeps you active and warm too (as J4MIE said)

And it smells nice too

[hari]

A spot I recommend, if you don't mind walking a bit, is on Hara. I was there last year, you walk in from the start (you can park the car on a smaller road adjacent to the big road) and eventually you get to a quite steep upward slope and a nice long u-turn. It was one of the better spots I was at last year.

How far is it approx. from the start?

[Viktory]

I would say it's about 1.5-2 km, took us maybe half an hour to get there (very rough guess). It's not that bad but it was very cold that morning (-25 degrees I think) and we were carrying a lot of stuff. Worth it though in my opinion.
You can see the place I am talking about in this video I filmed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XJq_9iz8X0
It is the long hairpin one at 3:00. If you see any other place that looks interesting in the video I'll be glad to let you know where it is.
and a picture:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...rL/Bild018.jpg

If you continue up the road there is another U-turn, however we didn't go there so I don't know how it looks like.

[curry]

Thanks Viktory, you have been a great help mate. I am currently in Seoul, Korea on a work trip and I plan to spend the next 2 days formulating a plan of action. I would like to bounce it off you once I figure out what is going on if that’s alright.

In the meantime a few questions if I may.

Where are the places in your video about the 2:15 & 5:30 marks?

Also just so I get an idea of drive times, what would the approximate drive time be from Filipstad to Hagfors on the Rally days?

Is there less crowds on the Friday compared to the weekend?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Curry

P.S. I notice that there is no ceremonial start this year!

[hari]

I would say it's about 1.5-2 km, took us maybe half an hour to get there (very rough guess).

Thanks for the links, i rembember seeing your video already some time ago.
The spot looks good.

it will be my first time at the rally sweden, so i hope for proper winter conditions. (at least more winter than here in austria).

Do you know any good spots at the Shakedown Stage?