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WRC - Every Sunday - Dave TV 6pm |
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Friday, February 05, 2010 |
- | STOBART TO SHAKE THINGS UP IN SWEDEN |
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Sunday, October 25, 2009 |
- | PERFECT POINTS FINISH FOR STOBART IN WALES |
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Saturday, October 24, 2009 |
- | STOBART STAY SECURE ON STORMY STAGES |
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Saturday, October 24, 2009 |
- | STOBART HOLD STEADY ON STORMY STAGES |
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Friday, October 23, 2009 |
- | DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR STOBART IN WALES |
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| UDDEHOLM SWEDISH RALLY - LEG 1 |
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Uddeholm Swedish Rally - Leg 1
Sporting details:
Nineteen-year-old Cumbrian Matthew Wilson has emerged unscathed from his first days competition in the freezing conditions on the Swedish Rally, round two of this years World Rally Championship. The Karlstad-based event is another mighty challenge for Matthew, contesting his first full season at the pinnacle of global motorsport.
Todays weather has been perfect for the WRCs only true winter rally. As the cars lined up for the pre-dawn start to the Fredriksberg test, north of Karlstad, thermometers were reading as low as 18 degrees. Matthew made it through the opening stage without any problems, but suffered a scare when the oil temperature warning light flashed on board his Ford Focus RS WRC 05 in the second test. He throttled back, concerned by the message and arrived in service comfortably inside the top 20. After a 30-minute service in Hagfors, the crews were confronted by a re-run of the first two stages. With the entire 63-car field having completed the tests, the roads hard, ice base was beginning to break up in places, with gravel beneath starting to show through.
The gravel can cause problems with the cars studded ice tyres, but both Matthew and his Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team team-mate Kosti Katajamaki (Finland) made it through without problems. Kosti started this event on the back of fine victory on the Arctic Rally, the opening round of his domestic championship. He was looking to put that experience to good use in Sweden, but admitted he had found the going tough early in leg one.
The afternoon contained the longest and shortest stages of the rally: the 39km of Vargasen was followed by a 1.87km blast through Hagfors Sprint. Matthew suffered a minor car problem before SS6, but ended the day in 16th position, with Kosti five places ahead in 11th.
Technical details:
Matthews Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team Focus RS WRC 05 suffered an electrical fault just ahead of the days penultimate stage. He drove Hagfors Sprint with the car on three cylinders. The mechanics traced the fault to a defective fuel injector, which was changed at the final service. Kostis sister Focus ran without fault.
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team driver Matthew Wilson said:
Ive really learned a lot today. Weve had some fantastic conditions to drive in, but at the same time, stage three was pretty tough going. Before that, we stalled on the last hairpin of SS2. It was quite frustrating, I could see the finish line, but I was sat there trying to fire the car up again to get over it.
That third stage was really rutted, it was difficult to keep the car in the ruts on some of the longer corners. I have to say, I didnt enjoy that so much. Then in stage four, it was much quicker and really flowing. Great fun. The long one (SS5) was good, but on the road back to Hagfors, for the final stage, the car dropped onto three cylinders. Michael (Orr, co-driver) and I got out and changed the coil on the car, but that didnt help. We were going to change the spark plugs, but we ran out of time, so we decided to go in and do the short stage with the car on three cylinders.
We made it through and back to service, where the boys had the chance to work on it. Its a shame about that problem, because otherwise its been a good day. One of the things Ive found today is that some of the pace notes we made in the recce are actually a bit slow now were coming on the road in the rally car. Its the sort of thing where if you drop one gear for a corner unnecessarily then you lose momentum. You then spend the next 200 metres building that speed back up thats the kind of thing which will come with experience.
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team driver Kosti Katajamaki said:
I was definitely trying to drive the car too aggressively this morning. We were very sideways in places, too much sideways. In the longest stage (SS5) I really calmed myself down; much more precise with the car. I was much happier after that stage, I managed to get some of the time back to the group of drivers ahead. Were just outside the top 10, but not such a long way away from the places ahead.
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team principal Malcolm Wilson said:
Matthew has done everything I asked of him today. Its been very good. The gap between him and drivers ahead has come down through the day, hes now less than half a second per kilometre down on Kosti and Kosti won the Arctic Rally last week. Im pleased with that. Kostis time on the long stage was better, he wasnt too happy with himself this morning, but things are looking better now.
Event data
Top 10 overall:
1 Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen (Ford Focus RS WRC 06) 1h12m29.8s
2 Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroen Xsara WRC) +10.2s
3 Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini (Mitsubishi Lancer WR 05) +57.5s
4 Daniel Carlsson/Bo Holmstrand (Mitsubishi Lancer WR 05) +1m03.0s
5 Mattias Ekstrom/Stefan Bergmann (Skoda Fabia WRC) +1m22.4s
6 Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor (Peugeot 307WRC) +1m28.7s
7 Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud (Peugeot 307 WRC) +1m40.3s
8 Kristian Sohlberg/Kaj Lindstrom (Subaru Impreza WRC) +1m48.4s
9 Janne Tuohino/Risto Pietilainen (Citroen Xsara WRC) +1m51.4s
10 Thomas Radstrom/Jorgen Skallman (Subaru Impreza WRC) +2m11.4s
11 Kosti Katajamaki/Timo Alanne (Ford Focus RS WRC 05) +2m38.2s
16 Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr (Ford Focus RS WRC 05) +4m28.2s
Date: February 2-5
Round: 2/16
Based: Karlstad
Surface: Snow
Total distance: 1441.16km.
Number of stages: 19.
Number of different stage venues: 10
Maximum number of times same stage roads are used: twice.
Stage distance: 349.02km.
Stage surfaces: Snow
Longest stage: 39.95km (stages 5/12).
Highest elevation on stage: 332 metres (SS9).
Permanent Service Park: Hagfors airport (including Shakedown).
Leg two: Saturday February 4. The cars leave Hagfors at 0650, tackling 7 stages and 127.79km.
Leg three: Sunday February 5. The cars leave Hagfors at 0630, tackling 6 stages and 90.20km. The event finishes in Karlstad at 1456. |
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