Let's hope our boys can do a bit better this time around...

Any predictions??

I imagine Gronholm will be up there this time after the last rally...

Would love to see Solberg and Makinen in the top 5 at least...;)

Soobe really has to deliver this time out, as in 1st and 2nd !
Whoo Ahh

Hopefully, w/ the lack of AWD, Citroen will fall off a bit. This is my favorite one so I hope it's a good one for Subaru.

GO Petter!
GO Tommi!

I'll be up in Tahoe w/ my snow tires this weekend, hopefully doing my best Petter Solberg impression! :D

-Joe

it's all about skinny tires
http://motorsports.nifty.com/wrc/pics/wrc_l.jpg

After SS4

Gronholm
Makinen
Burns
Rovanpera

Solberg is 9th... :(

Go Tommi !! :D

Looks like Duval crashed hard towards the end of SS5...and it really screwed up some of the top guys...

Now the lineup is totally different...

Burns
Martin
Sainz
McRae
Loeb
Rovanpera
Solberg
Makinen

Sounds like they canceled it at some point....changed things just a bit...

Looks like team Citroen needs AWD. McCrae had 3 spin out in the first stage and not a single Citroen driver in the top 10.

Go TOMMI! Go Petter!

The leader board as of tonite ;)
after ss 6

1. M GRÖNHOLM 48:54.1 Peugeot

2. T MÄKINEN +27.0 SUBARU :D

3. R BURNS +30.8 Peugeot

4. H ROVANPERÄ +36.2 Peugeot

5. J PYKÄLISTÖ +59.3 Peugeot

6. T GARDEMEISTER +1:03.9 Skoda

7. M MÄRTIN +1:05.0 Focus

8. P SOLBERG +1:09.4 SUBARU :D

Sainz and McRae (Citreon) are 12th and 13th !!!

Lets see what happens on day 2 ;)
Go Subau :D

1. M GRÖNHOLM 1:10:26.2

2. T MÄKINEN +25.5 SUBARU :D

3. R BURNS +31.6

4. H ROVANPERÄ +32.1

5. M MÄRTIN +1:08.5

6. J PYKÄLISTÖ +1:14.7

7. P SOLBERG +1:18.0 SUBARU :D

8. T GARDEMEISTER +1:23.6

9. F LOIX +1:25.3

10. J TUOHINO +1:29.5

oops seems like Makinen and Burns didn't do well in SS8
something must have happened
Solberg is still in the top group

This is the reason behind the times been all messed up again:

Pykalisto shunt stops stage
Sweden · 08/02/2003 11:24:46

Another Swedish Rally stage has been stopped after an accident in SS8, Fredriskberg. Young Finn Juuso Pykalisto rolled his privateer Peugeot 206, which was then hit by Harri Rovanpera's works 206.

Early reports suggest that there are no serious injuries, though Pykalisto was said to be shocked and receiving medical attention. He has been taken out of the car, placed in a neck brace as a precaution and taken to hospital .

Richard Burns, who was next on the scene on the Fredriksberg stage, said he thought Rovanpera had not been slowed by spectators or marshals before the accident. He also said the two cars were 'broken'.

The start of SS9 has been delayed by around 20 minutes.


Andy....

SS 9

01. GRONHOLM
02. MAKINEN :D
03. BURNS
04. MARTIN
05. SOLBERG :D
06. GARDEMEISTER

SS 16

1.Gronholm...peugeot
2.Makinen..Subaru :D
3.Burns...peugeot
4.Martin...focus
5.McRae...citreon
6.Solberg...Subaru :D


only one more stage to go

Hey guys and gals. i am finally back at the computer. i was in the hospital for 5 days following surgery on the lower portion of my kidney. fun huh? and i'm only 20! yikes. anyways, glad to be back. hospitals are awful!
i got on wrc.com last night and was happy to see mak in 2nd, and petter in 6th. if petter could just nudge his way up to 5th at least that would be a pretty good showing for the Subaru team. solberg in 3rd would be even better, but thats not going to happen unless there are some serious crashes. i also read about that pile w/ the peugeots. that totally stinks for them. still not as bad as loosing your only two wrc cars in the 5th stage! anyway, sounded kind of scary. i would not like to have been Juuso! just goes to say how good those cars really are built.
man, gronholm is fast... :(

-PJ

X1_SRT aka PJ,
glad to hear you are ok :D (get well soon)

Andy....

Results overall running SS 17

Overall SS 17
1.Gronholm
2.Makinen
3.Burns
4.Martin
5.McRae
6.Solberg
7.Loeb
8.Gardemeister
9.Sainz
10.Loix

thanks andy, i should be back to myself in 3-4 weeks.
gooo Petter!! thats awesome he could pull out one win. that makes a win for each subaru this weekend. much better showing than monte. mak in 2nd is very nice to see. the potential for solberg is very obvious, but i think it may take this season for him to be very competitive in 04. that will be his year to blow up! well as long as his car doesn't!


-PJ

WOW! Sebastian Loeb is a good driver. Wish Subaru can have him, but since Peugot has him(via Citroen) we will never get him. Subaru had a good showing though. 2 Guys in points is a good showing! :D

Loeb does well on asphalt but is the invisible man on other surfaces...I dont know who is a free agent at the end of this year but Soobe will have to replace Tommi with somebody.

What do you mean?! He came in 7th w/ a 2WD car on loose surface. I think that is pretty darn good. Unfortunately, he is French and Peugot is French company. They are just grooming him to take over Gronholms spot.

-Joe

I watched him all of last year on the rallys that Citroen actually did. I thought he was a bit of a specialist driver. Its a bit early to tell just how good he is.
What do you mean with 2WD car ? All the world rally cars are all wheel drive.

Originally posted by Soup Nazi

What do you mean with 2WD car ? All the world rally cars are all wheel drive.

I was wondering when someone would tell him that!!! ;)

Hey Ralley Chicka!
Got's any pic's of you and ur ride?..........

So what exactly is Citroens excuse for doing so poorly on anything but tarmac. they may have a few good showings on the other surfaces, but not very consistent. what are the reasons for this? car design? for some reason i thought the Xsara was 2wd, i guess i never really knew. o wel.

-PJ

Before Colin and Carlos jumped on board..they had Loeb and he is a tarmac specialist. For the life of me I can't think who was the second driver before this year???

I also think they have had a lot of bugs to work out on the car(growing pains so to speak) and really needed some good drivers.....
Hopefully this is the year that they have good reliability and a good showing!! ;)

Bugalski and Jesus Puras were the other citreon drivers ;)

before this years WRC citreon only did certain events ...mainly tarmac ....also the 2wd versions(citreon xsara's) were lighter than the wrc cars they were competeing against and therefore had a better power to weight ratio ;)

now they are doing the whole wrc for the first time (4wd Citreon xsara's) from what i've seen so far they look very good on all the surfaces wheter its tarmac, snow or gravel....

thanks for the clarification. i thought i was partly right about the 2wd xsara's. it certainlly looks like Citroen will be strong in all rounds. Although Petter has high hopes for the new car in gravel. lets hope his predictions are right.

-PJ