Sweden : Stobart M-Sport Ford - Leg 1Nineteen-year-old Cumbrian Matthew Wilson has emerged unscathed from his first day`s competition in the freezing conditions on the Swedish Rally, round two of this year`s World Rally Championship.
The Karlstad-based event is another mighty challenge for Matthew, contesting his first full season at the pinnacle of global motorsport. Today`s weather has been perfect for the WRC`s only true winter rally.
As the cars lined up for the pre-dawn start to the Fredriksberg test, north of Karlstad, thermometers were reading as low as –18 degrees. Matthew made it through the opening stage without any problems, but suffered a scare when the oil temperature warning light flashed on board his Ford Focus RS WRC 05 in the second test. He throttled back, concerned by the message and arrived in service comfortably inside the top 20. After a 30-minute service in Hagfors, the crews were confronted by a re-run of the first two stages.
With the entire 63-car field having completed the tests, the road`s hard, ice base was beginning to break up in places, with gravel beneath starting to show through. The gravel can cause problems with the car`s studded ice tyres, but both Matthew and his Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team team-mate Kosti Katajamaki (Finland) made it through without problems. Kosti started this event on the back of fine victory on the Arctic Rally, the opening round of his domestic championship. He was looking to put that experience to good use in Sweden, but admitted he had found the going tough early in leg one.
The afternoon contained the longest and shortest stages of the rally: the 39km of Vargasen was followed by a 1.87km blast through Hagfors Sprint. Matthew suffered a minor car problem before SS6, but ended the day in 16th position, with Kosti five places ahead in 11th.
Matthew`s Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team Focus RS WRC 05 suffered an electrical fault just ahead of the day`s penultimate stage. He drove Hagfors Sprint with the car on three cylinders. The mechanics traced the fault to a defective fuel injector, which was changed at the final service. Kosti`s sister Focus ran without fault.
Matthew Wilson
“I`ve really learned a lot today. We`ve had some fantastic conditions to drive in, but at the same time, stage three was pretty tough going. Before that, we stalled on the last hairpin of SS2. It was quite frustrating, I could see the finish line, but I was sat there trying to fire the car up again to get over it. That third stage was really rutted, it was difficult to keep the car in the ruts on some of the longer corners. I have to say, I didn`t enjoy that so much. Then in stage four, it was much quicker and really flowing. Great fun. The long one (SS5) was good, but on the road back to Hagfors, for the final stage, the car dropped onto three cylinders. Michael (Orr, co-driver) and I got out and changed the coil on the car, but that didn`t help. We were going to change the spark plugs, but we ran out of time, so we decided to go in and do the short stage with the car on three cylinders. We made it through and back to service, where the boys had the chance to work on it. It`s a shame about that problem, because otherwise it`s been a good day.
“One of the things I`ve found today is that some of the pace notes we made in the recce are actually a bit slow now we`re coming on the road in the rally car. It`s the sort of thing where if you drop one gear for a corner unnecessarily then you lose momentum. You then spend the next 200 metres building that speed back up – that`s the kind of thing which will come with experience.”
Kosti Katajamaki
“I was definitely trying to drive the car too aggressively this morning. We were very sideways in places, too much sideways. In the longest stage (SS5) I really calmed myself down; much more precise with the car. I was much happier after that stage, I managed to get some of the time back to the group of drivers ahead. We`re just outside the top 10, but not such a long way away from the places ahead.”
Malcolm Wilson, Team principal
“Matthew has done everything I asked of him today. It`s been very good. The gap between him and drivers ahead has come down through the day, he`s now less than half a second per kilometre down on Kosti – and Kosti won the Arctic Rally last week. I`m pleased with that. Kosti`s time on the long stage was better, he wasn`t too happy with himself this morning, but things are looking better now.”
Tags:
rally,
