Swedish Rally experience
02-15-2005, 12:26 AM
#1
VIP Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Ya, Ray Romano gets all the chicks.
Posts: 2,952
Car Info: 05 LGT Wagon MT
Swedish Rally experience
Getting there, the ride up, and SS10
I left the office at 3:30 pm on Friday hopped on the underground at Covent Garden Station and took it to King’s Cross where I changed to an overland train to head for London’s Luton Airport. I flew with Ryanair which is one of the European low cost airlines and believe me you get what you pay for (I paid about 100 American dollars round trip). Worst flight attendants ever they were actually yelling at passengers for not paying attention to the safety instruction where they show you how to fasten your seat belt! I landed around 9:45 local time in Vasteras, Sweden and got to my hotel around 10:30.
The next day started at 6:30am for me and I had to catch the bus at 7 at the Local Train Station which was about a block away. Once on the bus it was about 3 and a half hours to the stage I met some of the locals who were with us and spoke pretty good English we ended up watching the WRC 2004 season recap on the bus TV which took away some of the time.
We arrived around 10:30 and had some time before the stage began so I decided to try and find a nice spot to take some pictures (of course I chose wrong and later had to switch). Since we had about 40 minutes before the cars would roll through where I was standing the guys that I met decided to start grilling sausages and drinking the cases of beer they brought!
It was awesome there I am in the middle of the Swedish forest having sausages and beer at 11am!! Then the cars started coming through around 11:10 and that was amazing I was on a section of the track that had a very fast rise and heavy braking zone to make a 120 degree left turn. The cars would come flying over the rise and slam on the brakes and start wiggling back and forth as they downshifted and got ready for the corner with of course snow flying everywhere. After all the cars went through the stage we packed up and headed over to the service park….
Here is where I was on the stage:
Looking towards the corner:
This is before I switched spots hence why my timing is so off:
Skoda:
Markko Martin:
Sebastian Loeb:
Petter!:
Stephane Sarrazin:
Toni Gardemeister:
One of the Group N cars going through the corner:
I left the office at 3:30 pm on Friday hopped on the underground at Covent Garden Station and took it to King’s Cross where I changed to an overland train to head for London’s Luton Airport. I flew with Ryanair which is one of the European low cost airlines and believe me you get what you pay for (I paid about 100 American dollars round trip). Worst flight attendants ever they were actually yelling at passengers for not paying attention to the safety instruction where they show you how to fasten your seat belt! I landed around 9:45 local time in Vasteras, Sweden and got to my hotel around 10:30.
The next day started at 6:30am for me and I had to catch the bus at 7 at the Local Train Station which was about a block away. Once on the bus it was about 3 and a half hours to the stage I met some of the locals who were with us and spoke pretty good English we ended up watching the WRC 2004 season recap on the bus TV which took away some of the time.
We arrived around 10:30 and had some time before the stage began so I decided to try and find a nice spot to take some pictures (of course I chose wrong and later had to switch). Since we had about 40 minutes before the cars would roll through where I was standing the guys that I met decided to start grilling sausages and drinking the cases of beer they brought!
It was awesome there I am in the middle of the Swedish forest having sausages and beer at 11am!! Then the cars started coming through around 11:10 and that was amazing I was on a section of the track that had a very fast rise and heavy braking zone to make a 120 degree left turn. The cars would come flying over the rise and slam on the brakes and start wiggling back and forth as they downshifted and got ready for the corner with of course snow flying everywhere. After all the cars went through the stage we packed up and headed over to the service park…. Here is where I was on the stage:
Looking towards the corner:
This is before I switched spots hence why my timing is so off:
Skoda:
Markko Martin:
Sebastian Loeb:
Petter!:
Stephane Sarrazin:
Toni Gardemeister:
One of the Group N cars going through the corner:
Last edited by skimonkey30; 02-15-2005 at 12:51 AM.
02-15-2005, 12:26 AM
#2
VIP Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Ya, Ray Romano gets all the chicks.
Posts: 2,952
Car Info: 05 LGT Wagon MT
Service Park
So we depart SS10 at about 12:30 and head over to the service park. On the way there, there was arguing between everyone who did the best on the stage being translated to me thru my Swedish friend who actually spoke pretty good English so I chimed in a little but it was just funny to listen. Then once we got on some of the public roads and being on a bus we were going kind of slow so we see some cars pass us going up the hill then out of nowhere here comes Sebastian Loeb, Markko Martin, and one of the Mitsubishi’s passing us on there skinny *** tires and they go through the corners fishtailing all over the place it actually almost seemed like they were racing. I then sat my seat for a second thinking about that……..Sebastian Loeb and Markko Martin just passed me on a public road in rally cars that’s pretty ****ing sweet!
We roll into Uddelholm site of the Service Park and home base for the Rally at around 1:30. The service park is actually situated at the local airport (which isn’t much other than a control tower and a runway) and by the time we had arrived ½ of the cars were in service already so I of course instinctively headed over to the Subaru park and that’s where I spent most of my time. We were standing about 15 ft from the cars with a “hot” lane in front of us where cars were passing to head into their own service areas. Petter was the first of the Subaru’s to roll in and he immediately hopped out of his car and came over to the crowd since his fan club was here with a booth right across the way and said “why hello everybody” almost shocked that there were so many people waiting for him to get out of the car he signed a few autographs and then ran into the tent. I waited for a little while for him to come back out and he did but didn’t recognize the crowd much as he obviously had been instructed to greet all the corporate people standing in the service bay. But that didn’t deter us and I think the club must have turned up their song just enough to get him to come back over to the line and he did for the last 5 minutes before he had to hop back in his car. I realized that when Petter was hopping into his car a bunch of cars must already be leaving or are on there way out so I ran down to where the cars make a U-turn to get out and was maybe 2 feet from cars when they made this turn (as you will see in my pictures none of them are zoomed in at all) and did get some shots but most of everyone was already gone.
I then proceeded to the merchandise tents (as did everyone else) and bought a Subaru WR Team polar fleece jacket (which is too big and I have to return damnit) and a flag! Things were pretty cheap just because it was in Swedish Kronor’s so I figured I better take advantage! There was of course Manufactuer tents with all the latest computer software hooked up to race their cars in the game WRC 4. I decided to skip those to get out and see some of the privateer teams and the Group N cars that were all separated from the Manufacter teams on the north side of the airfield, grabbed some food and go watch the giant TV to see the next stage unfold. After that it was time to head over to the stadium (well sort of a stadium) to see the Night-time Sprint Stage!
The fan club booth:
Looking towards Petter's car in service on the left:
Sarrazin's car in service:
Petter heading out to the stage look closely as he is waving at us!
Marcus Gronholm anyone?
Atkinson on his way out:
Sarrazin on his way out:
I believe this is Gardemeister on his way out I just like the headlights!
mmmm Snow tires:
So we depart SS10 at about 12:30 and head over to the service park. On the way there, there was arguing between everyone who did the best on the stage being translated to me thru my Swedish friend who actually spoke pretty good English so I chimed in a little but it was just funny to listen. Then once we got on some of the public roads and being on a bus we were going kind of slow so we see some cars pass us going up the hill then out of nowhere here comes Sebastian Loeb, Markko Martin, and one of the Mitsubishi’s passing us on there skinny *** tires and they go through the corners fishtailing all over the place it actually almost seemed like they were racing. I then sat my seat for a second thinking about that……..Sebastian Loeb and Markko Martin just passed me on a public road in rally cars that’s pretty ****ing sweet!
We roll into Uddelholm site of the Service Park and home base for the Rally at around 1:30. The service park is actually situated at the local airport (which isn’t much other than a control tower and a runway) and by the time we had arrived ½ of the cars were in service already so I of course instinctively headed over to the Subaru park and that’s where I spent most of my time. We were standing about 15 ft from the cars with a “hot” lane in front of us where cars were passing to head into their own service areas. Petter was the first of the Subaru’s to roll in and he immediately hopped out of his car and came over to the crowd since his fan club was here with a booth right across the way and said “why hello everybody” almost shocked that there were so many people waiting for him to get out of the car he signed a few autographs and then ran into the tent. I waited for a little while for him to come back out and he did but didn’t recognize the crowd much as he obviously had been instructed to greet all the corporate people standing in the service bay. But that didn’t deter us and I think the club must have turned up their song just enough to get him to come back over to the line and he did for the last 5 minutes before he had to hop back in his car. I realized that when Petter was hopping into his car a bunch of cars must already be leaving or are on there way out so I ran down to where the cars make a U-turn to get out and was maybe 2 feet from cars when they made this turn (as you will see in my pictures none of them are zoomed in at all) and did get some shots but most of everyone was already gone.
I then proceeded to the merchandise tents (as did everyone else) and bought a Subaru WR Team polar fleece jacket (which is too big and I have to return damnit) and a flag! Things were pretty cheap just because it was in Swedish Kronor’s so I figured I better take advantage! There was of course Manufactuer tents with all the latest computer software hooked up to race their cars in the game WRC 4. I decided to skip those to get out and see some of the privateer teams and the Group N cars that were all separated from the Manufacter teams on the north side of the airfield, grabbed some food and go watch the giant TV to see the next stage unfold. After that it was time to head over to the stadium (well sort of a stadium) to see the Night-time Sprint Stage!
The fan club booth:
Looking towards Petter's car in service on the left:
Sarrazin's car in service:
Petter heading out to the stage look closely as he is waving at us!
Marcus Gronholm anyone?
Atkinson on his way out:
Sarrazin on his way out:
I believe this is Gardemeister on his way out I just like the headlights!
mmmm Snow tires:
Last edited by skimonkey30; 02-16-2005 at 01:42 PM.
02-15-2005, 12:27 AM
#3
VIP Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Ya, Ray Romano gets all the chicks.
Posts: 2,952
Car Info: 05 LGT Wagon MT
2nd day night sprint stage
So after buying all my stuff and seeing Petter in the service park we headed over to this converted sports stadium for the special night stage! I tried to grab some seats but that didn’t work very well since apparently people had camped out for seats in the grandstands. So I ended up in between turns 9 and 10 in a high speed section (so not many pictures to be had) but I was standing again like 5 feet from the track with cars sliding towards me so of course at any second I could have been taken out but that just makes it even better! Honestly though I don’t know how the cars raced around this track in parts of the course the track couldn’t have been much bigger than the width of one of the cars. I ended up paying attention more to the stage rather than taking pictures but later on I moved on closer to the beginning of the course and was standing just across the track from where Chris Atkinson took out one of the giant white pylons with the driver’s side of his car.
But alas I tried my hardest to get some good shots but it just wasn’t working so I watched the track more than try to take pictures. Afterwards we hopped on the bus and began our 3 and a half hour trip back to Vasteras and I slept most of the way! The next morning I got back onto a Ryanair flight to head back to London!
Start of the stage:
Mitsubishi in between turns 9 and 10:
Atkinson after he hit the pylon:
Sarrazin:
So after buying all my stuff and seeing Petter in the service park we headed over to this converted sports stadium for the special night stage! I tried to grab some seats but that didn’t work very well since apparently people had camped out for seats in the grandstands. So I ended up in between turns 9 and 10 in a high speed section (so not many pictures to be had) but I was standing again like 5 feet from the track with cars sliding towards me so of course at any second I could have been taken out but that just makes it even better! Honestly though I don’t know how the cars raced around this track in parts of the course the track couldn’t have been much bigger than the width of one of the cars. I ended up paying attention more to the stage rather than taking pictures but later on I moved on closer to the beginning of the course and was standing just across the track from where Chris Atkinson took out one of the giant white pylons with the driver’s side of his car.
But alas I tried my hardest to get some good shots but it just wasn’t working so I watched the track more than try to take pictures. Afterwards we hopped on the bus and began our 3 and a half hour trip back to Vasteras and I slept most of the way! The next morning I got back onto a Ryanair flight to head back to London!
Start of the stage:
Mitsubishi in between turns 9 and 10:
Atkinson after he hit the pylon:
Sarrazin:
Last edited by skimonkey30; 02-22-2005 at 02:02 PM.
02-15-2005, 01:27 AM
#5
VIP Member
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Reno, NV
Posts: 842
Car Info: '94 SVX, '02 WRX
David, I *hate* you sooo much, and yet I love you as much as any totally not gay man can love another totally not gay man.
You really need to remember to carry some I-Club and SECCS stickers on you over there. Go to Rally GB for us later in the year an make sure to slap 'em on Petter's car, I'm sure he'd be cool with 'em.
<-- can't wait for the rest of the story and pics!
You really need to remember to carry some I-Club and SECCS stickers on you over there. Go to Rally GB for us later in the year an make sure to slap 'em on Petter's car, I'm sure he'd be cool with 'em.
<-- can't wait for the rest of the story and pics!
I dont see any Mitsu Pics....
