” In total we have 50 cars, 17 World Rally Cars and 15 in WRC2, entered into the rally, Lundqvis”t says.
All the major teams and the best drivers are here. It’s extra fun to see that both Volkswagen Motorsport and Hyundai Motorsport enters an extra car, making the total three cars for Sweden. Volkswagen Motorsport have reigning World Champion Sebastién Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen. From Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT we have Chris Meeke and Mads Östberg, from Hyundai Motorsport we have Thierry Neuville, Dani Sordo and Hayden Paddon and from M-Sport World Rally Team (Ford) we have Elfyn Evans and Ott Tänak.
Other drivers to mention are Norwegian Henning Solberg, Finn Juho Hänninen, former F1-driver Robert Kubica and Prada-heir Lorenzo Bertelli.
In WRC2 the fight is on. No, less than 15 cars entered and it looks to be a battle for the top positions.
” There will be a Scandinavian wasp’s nest at the top with Swedes Pontus Tidemand and Fredrik Åhlin against Norwegians Anders Grøndal and Eyvind Brynildsen and with Jari Ketomaa being the only Finn”, says Lundqvist.
“In total there are nine Swedes entered into the rally and it’s a refreshing increase from previous years.”
For Rally Sweden Historic the interest has also been great with no less than 57 cars entered. The rally is run for the third time now and has established itself as a favorite amongst the spectators.
” Amongst the differend supporting rallies we’ve had over the years, the historic cars are clearly the ones the spectators like the most”, says Hasse Joansson.
In contrast to the WRC event, entries have been rolling in at a steady pace and the last day was a day a calm day for Joansson.
“The fight for the win will be interesting and will likely involve last year’s winner, Petter Solberg, Arne Rådström, Ola Axelsson and Kenneth Bäcklund. This will be a tough fight”, Joansson concludes.
Rally Sweden Historic is run Friday February 13 and Saturday February 14 and runs after the WRC on the stages used. All details are available on rallysweden.com.
For the event in total Glenn Olsson, CEO of Svenska Rallyt AB can see that everything goes as planned.
“We aimed to have more entries than last year, in total for WRC and Historic and we have. This shows that we are still very popular not only with the spectators but also with the drivers”