Ketomaa, DMACK launch WRC2 challenge in Sweden

Jari Ketomaa and Drive DMACK WRT to debut in Sweden

31 Jan 2014

Ketomaa, DMACK launch WRC2 challenge in Sweden

Jari Ketomaa will kick off DMACK's official WRC2 campaign next week on Rally Sweden, the only full snow event of the season.

Ketomaa will pilot an Autotek-run Ford Fiesta R5 running under the newly-formed 'Drive DMACK World Rally Team' banner. The Finn also ran with DMACK at the end of last season, finishing second in WRC2 on Wales Rally GB and taking the WRC2 win on Rally Finland. Ott Tanak will compete under the 'Drive DMACK World Rally Team' banner in 2014 as well, but he won't begin his WRC2 season until Rally Mexico. Instead the Estonian will pilot an M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC in Sweden.

Meanwhile, Finn Kristian Sohlberg and Swedish star Fredrik Ahlin will also use DMACK tyres in Karlstad, both also using Fiesta R5s, with the latter - like Ketomaa - eligible for points in WRC2.

DMACK has upgraded its 2014 snow tyre, building on the success and experience from sealing overall victory on last season's Rally Liepaja-Ventspils - a round of the FIA European Rally Championship. It now hopes the improved construction and an all-new hardened metal pin stud will lift performance and aid stud retention.

"The DMG-ICE tyre still features the unique open V tread pattern and retains DMACK's own in-house T-bar studding system which has transformed stud performance," DMACK noted.

"Each metal pin is 20mm long and protrudes 6.8mm to bite into the frozen forest roads and deliver astonishing levels of grip in the winter wilderness.

"DMACK [ice] tyres are equipped with 384 metal pins to extract every ounce of grip from the ice and frozen gravel - but [they] are also designed to cope with harsh, loose gravel when the stages traditionally rut on second pass."

"For a tyre manufacturer, Sweden is one of the most technical events with tyre pattern, compound, construction, stud composition and length all playing a role in the overall performance," added Dick Cormack, DMACK motorsport director. "We've always scored strong results on snow [and took the Production WRC category win with Martin Semerad on our first WRC event in 2011]. We have continued to evolve and build on that success. I'm also excited to debut the Drive DMACK team and the focus really is to win WRC2 this year with our strong driver line-up."