Pontus took his second consecutive overall victory in the Swedish Rally Championship
With the win in the first round of the Swedish Championship in Uppsala and the success in Rally Sweden the 21-year-old Pontus Tidemand was favorite to win Vinterpokalen in Sandviken.
Already on Friday night the rally started with a superspecial stage on the icestadium in Sandviken, where Pontus was fastest, 3 seconds ahead of Mats Jonsson.
On Saturday, 120 km specialstages was waiting for the drivers, divided into seven stages. On the first stage on Saturday had Pontus a third time, 6.4 seconds after Eddie Hörbing in a Ford Focus WRC 05.
– We lost a little on the first stage on Saturday, the others went out with a hard pace and I was a bit passive because I started first of the cars in the powder snow, says Pontus.
But on the second stage Pontus along with co-driver Emil Axelsson took command and won two stages in a row before the first service.
– I got a better pace and got two very good times, but decided to go hard on the two long stages after the lunchservice, says Pontus
Prior to the two long stages on Saturday afternoon, who were both around 20 km, so had Pontus a lead of 5.6 seconds ahead of Mats Jonsson. On the two long stages no one had a chance to catch up Pontus when he raised up the pace with the Skoda Fabia S2000, owned and run by EVEN rally.
– It worked great in the car, the cooperation with Emil and the settings were perfect. Is not so often I beat my idol Mats Jonsson with 20 seconds on a stage, says Pontus
Before the last leg Pontus had a comfortable lead of 39.7 seconds before Jonsson and around a minute to the third-placed Pelle Sääv. Pontus made no mistakes on the last stage and secured thereby his second consecutive overall victory in the Swedish Rally Championship.
– Really nice to win again and we felt we had good control off the pace all day. I’ve driven a lot of car recently and of course it helps now. We now look forward to gravel-season where we hope to run some international races in addition to Swedish Championship, says Pontus
Topp five overall Vinterpokalen, Sandviken MK
| 1. | Pontus Tidemand | SMK Eda | 01:06:13,3 | |
| 2. | Mats Jonsson | Forshaga MC | 01:06:54,1 | +40,8 |
| 3. | Per-Arne Sääv | VÖMK | 01:07:17,0 | +01:03,7 |
| 4. | Patrik Johansson | Wäxjö MS | 01:08:06,2 | +01:52,9 |
| 5. | Jimmy Joge | SMK Motala | 01:08:21,2 | +02:07,9 |
Standings Swedish Rally Championship, after 2 of 6 rounds:
1. Pontus Tidemand, SMK Eda, 60 points
2. Mats Jonsson, Forshaga MC, 52 points
3. Per-Arne Sääv, VÖMK, 46 points
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