East Sweden Rally for Pontus Tidemand this weekend
After months of focus on international rallies, it’s once again time for the current Junior WRC leader Pontus Tidemand to compete on home soil. This weekend he participates in the Swedish Championship’s fifth event, East Sweden Rally, and he is looking forward to replacing asphalt with gravel when he comes to start in Team Tätab’s Ford Fiesta R2. 
The latest rally in the Swedish Championship had to stand back in favor of asphalt practise for Rally Deutschland, but Pontus and co-driver Ola Fløene are now ready to run on Swedish soil again. Their latest event in the Swedish Championship was South Swedish Rally in May, and just like then they will take part in the untrimmed two wheel drive category with a Ford Fiesta R2 this weekend. The Junior World Rally Championship has been and is still the first priority this year and since they drive a similar car in JWRC, it is important to collect as many kilometers in the car as possible in addition the championship events. “It will be great fun to compete in Sweden again”, says Pontus. “Lately we’ve been focusing on asphalt driving as that’s the surface in the last three JWRC races, so it will be interesting to see how quickly I can adjust to driving on gravel.” East Sweden Rally takes place in the woods around Linköping and involves a total of 400 km, which contains nine special stages that measure 110 km. The first leg kicks off on late Friday afternoon with a short spectator stage at Cloetta Center, where also the service area is located. Then follows another three stages before the overnight break. On Saturday awaits five stages, three in the morning and two in the afternoon. The last one is the same spectator stage that opened the event on Friday. All stages are driven on gravel, except for the spectator stage that runs on asphalt. Finish and prize giving is set to 15.45 on Saturday afternoon, at Cloetta Center. “East Sweden Rally is always a good event and I’ve enjoyed it very much previous years. It’s also fun to start and finish with a city stage as that usually attracts lots of spectators and gives a good atmosphere. I think this could be a really great weekend”, finishes Pontus. Follow the event live here. Time schedule East Sweden Rally 2013 Friday 6 September 17.30 Official event opening at Cloetta Center 18.00 SS1 (Spectator stage at Cloetta Center) 18.50 SS2 19.45 SS3 20.35 SS4 22.00 Service Saturday 7 September 08.55 SS5 09.35 SS6 10.35 SS7 11.40 Service 13.10 SS8 14.10 SS9 (Spectator stage at Cloetta Center) 15.45 Finish and prize giving at Cloetta Center
Photo: Jens Karlsson / Rallybild.se