Tidemand aiming for victory in the Swedish Championship Rally sprint
Now on Saturday, Winter Tractive Sprint takes place in the Swedish city Falun, where a gold medalist in rally sprint will be crowned. On the starting line we will find the 22 year old rally talent Pontus Tidemand along with his co-driver Ola Fløene in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC, ready to do their best to win.
The race is a part of the National championship week 2013 and there has been great interest in the fourty spots available. The rules are simple – the fastest one wins as a 7,5 km sprint stage will be driven three times. The two first times decides which ten that will qualify for the final run, and the quickest one in the third and final run will be crowned Swedish Champion in rally sprint.
– This is a new and cool race format on national championship level. The distance of the stage is pretty long, but you have to be right on it from start. Then the final run is crucial as the fastest one wins, Pontus explains.
The car that Pontus will drive is a Ford Fiesta RS WRC, owned by Tommy Andersson and normally driven by Ingemar Svensson in the Swedish Championship. Tommy now allows Pontus to use it in the upcoming weekend’s sprint as well as in Rally Sweden in a couple of weeks.
– Tommy Andersson owns the car, but I usually drive it. Now Pontus gets to use it in the national championship sprint to give him some training in the car before Rally Sweden. Of course you want to try to help the young talents as much as possible, says Ingemar Svensson who also will take part in Saturday’s rally sprint in a Ford Focus WRC.
In the navigator’s seat we will find the experienced Norwegian Ola Fløene, who used to be co-driver of the double IRC Champion, but on Saturday does his first rally together with Pontus. Fløene is a part of EVEN Rally, the talent development company that has supported Pontus over the last two years, and will have an important role as co-driver of Pontus during the winter season.
– The sprint will be a perfect opportunity for us to make our debut in the car before other rallies in the Swedish Championship and Rally Sweden. We have aldready done note training several times and it’s working perfectly, says Pontus.
With drivers such as Mats Jonsson and Patrik Sandell in a similar Ford Fiesta WRC, the start list for Saturday promises a tough fight for the win.
Both the public and the media has shown great interest in the weekend’s activities and nearly two hours of live footage will be broadcasted on Swedish web tv (SVT) on Saturday along with an additional review on Sunday on the national broadcast-channel SVT.