Swedish Rally

[wayno]

Thought I'd start a new thred as a lot of us will be watching this rally with great interest.
At the moment rally organisers are hoping that snow predicted for the next 24hrs eventuates as recent warm and dry weather has left many of the stages snow free at the moment.
Just wouldn't be the Swedish Rally without snow.

[Y2Joel]

Should be interesting, as I didn't watch Rally Monte Carlo and Citroen just dominated. I know support Marcus Gronholm, as my favourite Sainz is gone.

I'd expect something big from Subaru. By the way, when is Chris Atkinson driving?

[badboyau69]

Y2Joel Chris Atkinson will be driving in this rally so it should be a good one to watch.



Cheers

Russell

[wayno]

Great to see a full page add from Subaru wishing young Chris luck in the Herald Sun today (page 41 from memory). He also got a mention in the Cars Guide in the middle.
I just hope expectations don't put too much pressure on him. This is really going to be a learning experience for him.

[wayno]

Chris is still on the road after two stages this morning in Sweden. He ran off the road on stage one and lost about 20 seconds and (I think) did the same thing on stage two.
At last glance he was still one spot ahead of Sarazin. Let's just hope he stays sensible and keeps it straight.
Solberg leads in the Subaru.

[GSXR1]

Solberg led early from Loeb, but after four stages Gronholm has hit the front, Solberg in second and Gigi Galli in the Mitsi up in third, with Loeb slipping back to fourth.

Chris Atkinson battling with Warmbold for 16th a minute and a half behind the leaders, but twenty seconds behind 15th (and thirty seconds ahead of teammate Sarrazin)

[wayno]

After day one it's very close at the top.
Gronholm and Solberg are practically tied in first and second, being seperated by only .2 of a second.
Loeb is about 10 seconds further back in third, with Galli an amazing fourth in the Mitsubishi 18.9 seconds down.
Duval is fifth (+28.0), Martin sixth (+36.9), Gardemeister seventh (+57.4) and Rovanpera eigth (+58.3).
Our boy is in 16th place at two minutes behind the leaders with Sarazin one place behind him. The gap between these two is about 36 seconds.
Hopefully we'll be in for a great fight over the next few days, as the top three are running very closely together. It could have been even closer as Loeb ran into a ditch on SS 4 and lost 10 to 15 seconds.
Looking forward to a great battle over the next two days.

[Holden2003]

THIS 2005 WRC SEASON LOOKS LIKE AN ABSOLUTE PEARLER! After the last season which was dominated by loeb and errors and or mechanical failures of the other drivers, this season the drivers look to be more competitive. All teams seam to be evenly matched, with Mitsubitshi showing great improvement in their cars. Peugeot seem to have a stronger car. Ford are doing well despite starting with 2 new drivers. Citroen are still the ones to beat. Subaru looks good (GO ATKINSON). looking at the results from this rally and the last rally this season gonna be 1 to watch. Why is it always the odd year rally seasons that seem to be the most exciting years of wrc?

[wayno]

I hope we'll see some good battles this year, but I think Loeb is still the favourite for the title. He must have been laughing at the last round as his competitors took themselves out of the running.
Both he and the car are fast and consistent on all surfaces and he just does not make mistakes.
I must say I am extremely impressed with the early showing of Mitsubishi and hope for the sake of the championship it continues.
I was really impressed with my first WRC event at Rally Australia last year but, let's face it, the turnout of full WRC cars was poor to say the least!

[wayno]

First stage due to start at 8 am today Swedish time. If I have my sums right that's about 40 minutes away.
I've been using the live timing via the Subaru website as it's the best I've found. If anyone has a better site please let me know.
:mad: to the official WRC site for only having live timing to their paying subscribers. Very poor effort that.

[wayno]

SS 8 and the top guys have just gone through. Loeb was quickest from Gronholm and Solberg. The big news is Chris Atkinson SEVENTH FASTEST and the top guys have pretty much all run!
Chris was 14.7 seconds behind Loeb's time. That's an excellent effort over a 20.78 km stage. Hope he can keep it up.

[wayno]

SS 9 and Solberg sets quickest time by 7.6 seconds from Loeb, Duval and Gronholm. Atkinson sets 10th fastest time 24.6 seconds down on Solberg. Sarrazin was 21st (+54.1).
Overall Solberg is back in 1st from Gronholm (+8.4), Loeb (+15.8), Duval (+46.5) and Galli has now dropped to fifth (+52.6).
Atkinson is now up to 14th, overtaking the Skoda of Paasonen after the last stage.

[wayno]

SS 10 and Solberg leads by just 6.2 seconds from Gronholm after finishing second on this stage. Atkinson has done well again with eigth place (+15.3) on 20.12 km stage. He's consistently dropping less than a second per kilometer to the fastest driver on any stage. An extremely impressive effort I think.
Atkinson is still 14th, but is now only about 38 seconds off seventh placed Hennig Solberg.

[stonebrosfan]

SS11 - ATKINSON 4TH!!!!!!

WHAT A BLOODY LEGEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

edit: sorry, this is an in progress time..... he is still going well though!

[mrmavx]

at current rate atkinson has a realistic shot at 6th outright as stonebrosfan says
"WHAT A BLOODY LEGEND"

mrmavx

[wayno]

Originally posted by stonebrosfan
SS11 - ATKINSON 4TH!!!!!!

WHAT A BLOODY LEGEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fantastic result isn't it. Chris was 21.6 seconds down on Gronholm which is less than a second a kilometer again. He's now sitting in 10th or 11th depending on whos timing you believe.
Will be interesting to see what happened to Duval on that stage. He dropped a heap of time (nearly five minutes) and is now shown in 17th overall.
To servicenow, so it will be another hour and a half before the next stage starts.

[wayno]

Duval broke a left front wheel on one of the loose rocks that litter this stage, hence the time loss. No word on if he'll continue yet but he probably will as it seems he made the road section and reached service.

[wayno]

Loeb wins SS12 to keep the fight for the lead tight. It's now 12.2 seconds between Gronholm, Solberg and Loeb.
Atkinson finished 11th (+20.5) ans is now ninth overall. He's just under 28 seconds off Gardemeister in sixth.

[wayno]

Solberg has pulled out a blinder on SS13 to win it by nine seconds from Gronholm. This puts him back into the lead by 8.3 seconds from Gronholm. Loeb is 24 seconds off the lead.
Galli dropped about a minute on that stage so probably had a spin somewhere.
Atkinson finished ninth (+19.5) which is another great effort. He sits in ninth still, but has cut the gap to Gardemeister in sixth now to 23.2 seconds.
One stage to go for the day. I should be in bloody bed!

[stirlf1]

It's so great having an aussie in WRC. :cool:

GO ATKINSON!

[Colh]

How good is "our" boy Chris.
After day 2, 10th outright having never driven in snow or driven a WRC before. David Lapwoth of Subaru has said he is the star of the rally.
And how about 4th fastest on a stage !! how good.

[wayno]

And only 30 seconds off 5th place! Day three action is due to start in Sweden in approximately three hours. Fingers crossed Chris can have a good day and maybe move up a few more positions.

[wayno]

Solberg has consolidated his lead now, as Gronholm has rolled the Peugeot on SS16. Loeb is really out of the equation as he's reported a rattle in the engine of the Citroen. He's driving conservatively and a minute behind now.
Atkinson has finished 8th, 11th and 8th in the mornings stages. He currently sits in 9th place, .4 seconds behind Galli in 8th. With all the shuffling around this morning Chris is now about 48 seconds off Gardemeister in 4th place.
Only three stages to go so it's a bit too much of a gap, but we'll see how he goes.

[brchi17]

I found this article about Chris on the Subaru Australia website (http://www.subaru.com.au/news/?newsid=12160) & it has Chris in 10th position Wayne ;) !!!

Uddeholm Swedish Rally
Results after Leg 2 of 3
1. Petter Solberg (Subaru) 2:14:27.9
2. Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot) +12.6
3. Sebastien Loeb (Citreon) +34.3
4. Markko Martin (Peugeot) +2:05.8
5. Toni Gardemeister (Ford) +3:18.6
6. Henning Solberg (Ford) +3:21.8
7. Harri Rovanpera (Mitsubishi) +3:22.7
8. Gigi Galli (Mitsubishi) +3:35.6
9. Daniel Carlsson (Peugeot) +3:48.6
10. Chris Atkinson (Subaru) +3:51.8
17. Stephane Sarrazin (Subaru) +6:56.3

cheers. :)

[lachlan]

Don't get to excited, I think something has happened to Chris?
Not sure what yet?

[brchi17]

Originally posted by lachlan
Don't get to excited, I think something has happened to Chris?
Not sure what yet?

I'm real sure what your talking about as I've just been checking out the WRC website & it appears that after stage 18 he's jumped up to 8th outright with a 9th in stage ???

For the latest updates on Chris check out SWRT (http://www.swrt.com/684631.html)

cheers. :)

[lachlan]

On stage 18 his time was 18m12s??? Something went wrong?
Bad luck he was doing really well.

[lachlan]

SS18 1129hrs Lesjöfors 2 (22.33km)
With the first 12.6km having been removed, crews faced a repeat of the 10km technical, deceptive stage, that featured a number of unseen junctions. Running sixth on the road, Chris Atkinson, who had demonstrated an impressive pace on his first WRC event, was caught out by the tricky conditions and went off the stage, 8km from the start. He was able to continue, but lost more than 12 minutes to the leaders and fell from ninth to 21st overall. With a healthy lead of more than a minute, his team-mate Petter Solberg eased off the pace and concentrated on bringing his Impreza home at the head of the field; he was fifth fastest. Sarrazin was fifteenth, the same position that he held on the overall leaderboard. Jostling for fourth position in the standings, Daniel Carlsson was fastest, with rivals Gardemeister second and Henning Solberg third. Loeb was thirteenth fastest, but there was disaster for the Frenchman after the finish when his Xsara's ailing engine failed and he was unable to restart it. The remaining crews moved to the start of SS19.
Fastest Time: Carlsson (Peugeot) 5:31.8

[lachlan]

That was taken from the SWRT web site. What a shame, at least he showed how good he is. Better luck next time.

[Rattler]

Petter finally got Sweden!! Along with his older brother just down the list a bit.

Congrats Petter.

[wayno]

Pity young Chris lost 12 minutes when he stuffed it into a ditch. A great job from him still. Great to see Petter get rid of the Monte Carlo disapointment with a win.
Brad, your results were for leg 2 of 3. There had been three stages of leg three already run when I posted. This result was checked off three different live timing sites. :p

[Rattler]

What sites doe you peoeple use to get results? It stinks that they came up with that WRC+ and want some coin for about everything now. I use rally-live.

[wayno]

Originally posted by Rattler
What sites doe you peoeple use to get results? It stinks that they came up with that WRC+ and want some coin for about everything now. I use rally-live.

I use Rally Live, Subaru WRT, and Citroen Sport sites. I'm with you on the WRC site. It's a really poor effort from them.
Roll on Mexico. Petter was awesomely fast there last year. Just hope he doesn't have battery problems again.

[rex555]

OK, so which manufacturer has stuck their hand up to model Chris Atkinsons first drive. 1:43 or 1:18 I don't care, I'll have either;)

The rally has been over for 1/2 a day, whats the hold up with this model. I'm not impatient - much:D

[brchi17]

Originally posted by Wayno
.....Brad, your results were for leg 2 of 3. There had been three stages of leg three already run when I posted. This result was checked off three different live timing sites

Talk about commitment, I struggled to find one good site, let alone 3......

I thought I was on the right day as the WRC site was listing the 17th & 18th stage as Leg 3, so hence why I got it so wrong.

Originally posted by rex555
OK, so which manufacturer has stuck their hand up to model Chris Atkinsons first drive. 1:43 or 1:18 I don't care, I'll have either....

I must admit, I thought either Prodrive or AA or someone, would have listed it as production planned etc..., before now. :D !!!

cheers. :)

[lachlan]

Originally posted by rex555
OK, so which manufacturer has stuck their hand up to model Chris Atkinsons first drive. 1:43 or 1:18 I don't care, I'll have either;)

The rally has been over for 1/2 a day, whats the hold up with this model. I'm not impatient - much:D


I don't care who makes it, just someone make it!!

[wayno]

Originally posted by brchi17
Talk about commitment, I struggled to find one good site, let alone 3......


It's called having too much time on your hands. Besides, it keeps me off ebay! ;)
If anyone does the car I bet it won't be AutoArt. I was really upset with the way they handled the Solberg 2003 car (promising all these models then delivering only two versions).
The Swedish car is quite different (with thinner, studded tyres) and I can't see AutoArt spending the money to model it. They'd rather give us something irrelevant but cheap to model.

[Andrew]

I would keep an eye on iXO and Vitesse. They would be the best bets for a 1:43 release.

1:18? Hmmm, an outside shot would be AutoArt, but more likely Solido.

[rex555]

So in 1:18 I should be looking out for another cr@ppy SunStar model with tail light lenses that fall out and paint you can see through? Don't think I'll bother with the 'Prodrive Limited Edition' this time if the quality is as poor as last time, tho I really would like Chris's first WRC drive modeled.:confused:

[wayno]

Originally posted by Andrew
1:18? Hmmm, an outside shot would be AutoArt, but more likely Solido.

Unless AutoArt decide to model Petters car and have the tooling set up then I doubt it will happen. If we get it at all it will definately be from one of the inferior brands.

[Tumbo]

Uatoart will model a subaru this yr. However as they have promised us a number of the 04 model then i would not expect to see anything other than the subaru which has run in the last two events. As Sweden does require the thinner ice and snow styles of tyre then expect another monte effort. Atkinson didn't rally here so we will prolly see another Solberg. This of course will depend on whether subaru debut their new car in Mexico, as announced during the off-season. IXO will probably do one mould and Vitesse as well i would expect (Unless they do Sarrazin's monte car). So if we want one in 1/18 i doubt it will be this yr.....look toward either an 06 release for one of his later drives or none at all from 05 and for 1/43 the best we could do would be a prodrive 1/43 release for his first drive modelled by IXO. These are better than Vitesse but inferrior to the earlier trofeu releases from prior to 01.
And while some say autoart lied they didn't fully. The cars listed as production planned (i.e 03 Australia) were shelved and replaced with the 03 corsica car. Autoart never promised to release a Rally GB car (always Sunstar) What they haven't delivered in Makinen's 03 Monte car which is still on their website.

[KiwiRallyFan]

This is a bit off topic, but who exactly are Sunstar (apart from being a brand name for what seem fairly ordinary and cheaper 1/18 models)? Are they any relation to Autoart, Minichamps or another higher quality brand?

[badboyau69]

Hi I was very impressed with how well Chris Atkinson done in this rally considering he has never driven on snow or even driven a WRC car for that matter. I reckon Chris is only going to get better as the year progresses and it is going to be good to see him at rally Aus.

[spoonster05]

Well done to Chris Atkinson, a really good debut on a strange surface.

Wishing him well for the rest of the season..