THE FIRST WRC STAGE FOR 2010
author: Leon Botha
No matter where, how long or short it was - thousands of spectators braved the sub-zero temperatures to see Dani Sordo win the opening stage of the first rally in the 2010 WRC series held on the 1.9km Super Special ice circuit in Karlstad on Thursday evening.
The ice surface of the Super Special of Rally Sweden was formed by continuously spraying the stage with water. The stage is in a figure-eight form and features a "not to be taken flat-out" jump and suspension compressing dip underneath the bridge!
Sebastien Ogier in yet another Citroen C4 was second fastest but a full two seconds slower that Sordo.
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Will it be one of them - or are we in for a surprise?
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Mikko Hirvonen driving the Ford Fiesta S2000 who was third fastest said afterwards that he deliberately took it easy. He was followed by Sébastien Loeb in another Citroen and then also a good sign of things to come, came Marcus Gronholm driving the M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000.
The Super Special King - Petter Solberg hit a snowbank, spun and finished a rally losing 18.3s behind the winner! Being his own team boss he had to admit that he tried too hard - got oversteer and paid the price! Old Pettertjie will start the rally today (Friday 12th Feb 2010) in 44th position! Like Mary Poppins sang in 19something in that song about the Do-Re-Mi - "Doe a dear, a female dear…" - not a very good place to start!
Some of you - especially those who are good friends with the Oude Meesters and the Johnny Walkers of the world, no matter how hard you pray, wish it away or believe what happened the previous night will go away - it will simply forms part of your personal history and reputation and remains so for the rest of your life? Not even Petter gets a second go at it!
Kimi Raikonen took it easy and posted ninth fastest time - and even though I believe that his opinion does not really count yet, he added, "these stages you can only lose!"
Sounds like he stood near Marcus Gronholm before the stage started?
Today the rally restarts at 08h18 when crews will tackle the first of six stages through the white snow covered countryside before they will head back to Karlstad for another Super Special.
Friday 12th Feb 2010
SS2/SS5 Likenas (20.78km)
The most northerly stage Likenas, lies eighty kilometres from Hagfors.
This stage was last used in 2007 and starts off as a very wide and fast stage with small snowbanks but at the three kilometre mark after a "Right8" turn it becomes narrow and twisty in and out of plantations up to the 12km point. From here it becomes really twisty and technical to where it ends in an ice arena used for oval ice racing! The latter being extremely popular with rally crazy spectators who slip and slide to their seats!
The organisers sprayed water on the stage to ensure an icy surface throughout!
SS3/SS6 Viggen (21.28km)
Viggen is the longest stage for Friday and is brand new.
Like Likenas, it starts out wide with small snowbanks either side and a good, hard surface. After a jump at 1.4km it turns twisty and technical through a forest after which there is a very fast section between kilometres six and nine and approximately in the middle there is a flat out kilometre!
The route gets technical and twisty with heavy braking from 16km to the end.
SS4/SS7 Torntorp (19.21km)
This is another classic stage run in 2007 that has not changed at all.
Competitors may experience some trouble with gravel patches here.
As those of you who regularly follow RallyStar will know, the idea is to have ice under these studded tyres. The moment you hit gravel you start losing studs and destroy the tyres very quickly. The gravel rips out the studs and it becomes like Ouma eating biltong while her teeth floats in a glass of Sterident next to her bed!
The problem will get worse on the second run over the stage and tyres will start playing a major role.
The Torntorp stage is fast throughout in and out of the forests up to kilometre 17 when it opens up onto very fast roads over open fields and meadows. This will probably be the fastest stage of the day!
The short and sweet, snow or ice of the matter is - we are in for a treat and no one close to sanity will at this stage of the morning - just before 04h00 while you all sleep (except maybe Willie du Plessis who have in the past replied immediately when I sent him an email at 03h00 one morning) try to predict the outcome of this one.
If we look at the shakedown stage to try and get an indications of what is to come, we find that Sébastien Loeb posted the fastest time over the 4km test at Hagfors just south of the main Service Park in perfect snow conditions. He posted a time of 1m53s on his final of four attempts.
Loeb was satisfied with the car's setup but warned that the second run over stages will be very testy as he expected gravel patches to appear.
Typical Sébastien Loeb - he admitted that he does not know how to save tyres in these conditions (I think I can give him a few telephone numbers of champions who will tell him in detail how to do that - I mean there is absolutely nothing they do not know everything about?) - and wisely Loeb said that he will only see the results after stages.
Sordo was second fastest and he was too happy with the "incredible grip these tyres get on gravel" - but said he, "When you get back on snow you are in trouble!" Did anyone tell him that you should not use the studded grip on the gravel to maximum extend?
Latvala'tjie was third quickest in his BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team Focus RS WRC, while his teammate Mikko Hirvonen was fourth quickest in another Focus.
Wait for this! Ten guesses who said, "Once we got the seat position right the car felt OK!"
You don’t know? Then you sure as hell are not a fan of my favourite rally driver behind the steering wheel of any rally car! Not because he is so good behind the steering wheel - but because of what he has to say no matter if he is leading or trailing in a rally.
Old Grompies is back!
No matter how good or bad - he will have the best complaint in the world! I love the man as he makes my interest in rally worth every early morning and late night!
Marcus Gronholm won Rally Sweden five times already and please don’t spill your beer if he pulls a surprise on this one as well. I don’t care who drives - Grompies has the ability to moan so much that everyone seems to tap off!
Mister F1? Well as you have read he posted ninth fastest on the Super Special and yesterday managed only tenth fastest in the shakedown- 5.9s slower than Loeb.
Please don’t misunderstand me and think that I don’t know that Kimi Raikonen can drive a Formula One with an acre of rubber underneath him on a baby smooth surface in the same direction and around the same track round after round until someone gets bored and runs out with a chequered flag to stop the shit. No sir, from what I hear he is quite capable, but to have to listen to a chatterbox who talks non stop into your ears telling you where to go, while corner after new corner tries to entice you into snow banks? Now that is another story.
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Kimi Raikkonen - will he be able to adapt and fulfil expectations?
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Before I lose one of the two readers I have because it is now clear that I have no idea what happens in Formula One racing I need to say that Fangio and then Stirling Moss are still my favourites! I do cheer every time I see them drive real cars in those black an yellow films. Real masters they were!
Ok - so one of you two is still leaving to go read "scoops" elsewhere - be my guest! My cousin promised to fill your place now that he has retired and says that he really has nothing else to do after they banned him from playing bowls because he passed a few remarks (he said they were innocent) about the ladies when they bend down to let fly with one of those silly black reject balls they simply don't seem to be able to get round?
Hold onto your seats we are in for red-hot action in sub zero temperatures!
p.s. Rallystar can proudly announce that we had a record number of hits in January and is currently leading the specialist rally sites in South Africa by a million and more positions on the Internet ratings!
Thanks to all those who left the country to go suffer somewhere else who are still reading our humble news daily!
The latest news here is that we are creating job opportunities faster than Zuma (that is our President) can produce! We are indeed making progress and you can come back as our new police chief said that all is now under control and that the bullshit we read about will be stopped - if he cannot stop crime he will close down the media!
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