The spectacular Rally Sweden, held on gravel forest tracks covered with ice or snow, is one of the fastest rallies on the World Championship calendar and will also be the first event to qualify for the new-style Teams' Cup.
Six of the seven registered World Rally teams will take part, with only
Citroen missing. Not only have 12 nominated crews been entered, but official teams have entered another four as well. More tactical 'musical chairs' regarding driver nominations: Thomas Radstrom invited as guest driver for Mitsubishi, and this time
Petter Solberg rather than
Markko Martin is second driver to Richard Burns at
Subaru.
The Event.
Rally Sweden covers a total special stage distance of 380 kilometres in the southern part of the country, west of the capital city of Stockholm. The ceremonial start being held on the evening of Thursday February 8 in Karlstad main square, and the rally proper begins at 0700 on Friday February 9.
Leg 1 covers a total of 102 competitive stage kilometres taking competing crews to the Torsby environs. Many of these stages will be new for most competitors, including the longest stage of the event, the 49.36km Granberget stage, the most northern-run stage of the event.
Leg two is the longest of the rally, with crews leaving parc ferme at 0700 hours and returning at 2157 hours, after completing a superspecial stage held at the base of the Swedish olympic ski jump in Falun.
The final leg covers only 98 competitive kilometres and brings competing crews to the finish ramp in Karlstad at 1609 hours on Sunday February 11.
News from the teams.
Mitsubishi will officially run a three-car team for the first time on a world championship rally, with Thomas Radstrom's first drive, although co-driver Tina Thorner has been involved with them in many successful activities, including cross-country rallies and Group N World Championship events.
