Tidemand ready for Swedish Rally Sprint Championship
Pontus Tidemand is back in his rally car for the Swedish Championship Week’s Rally Sprint. He already has two champion titles in this discipline and is eager to go after a third. “I really look forward to this, pedal to the metal is what it’s all about” said Pontus.
During the spring, Pontus has done a few guest apperances in rallycross, combined with intense rally tests all over Europe, but he has not been competing in rally since Rally Sweden in February. But now it’s finally time for a comeback! On Friday, Pontus takes place in Pontus Tidemand Racing’s SKODA Fabia R5 to challenge his competitors in the Swedish Rally Sprint Championship.
“I’m looking forward to this, it will be a blast” said Pontus. “It’s been a while since I had the chance to do a sprint rally, but I have great memories from previous years with two victories in two starts, and like I always say, it’s always fun to race in front of the Swedish rally fans.”
This time he will also have a different kind of co-driver change. Pontus and his co-driver Ola Fløene were in France for a test a couple of weeks ago. On the rough roads, they took a few hard hits in the car, something that unfortunately caused Ola a concussion. Sadly, he is still not well enough to compete on Friday so Emil Bergkvist, who we usually see as a driver in the WRC 2, will take Ola’s place for the day.
“It was bad luck for me to get a concussion, but it’s not the first time and probably not the last. At the moment I’m not feeling so good but it gets a bit better every day so I will be back in the motorsport circus soon. I’m happy to temporarily lend Emil my seat. Despite being a rally driver himself, he has quite a lot of experience as a co-driver and I believe that he and Pontus will work great together” said Ola Fløene.
“I’m co-driving once in a while when I’m not competing and I’m really looking forward to joining Pontus on Friday. Everything has gone very well when we have worked together in the past and I’m sure we will have fun in the car” said Emil Bergkvist.
The rally sprint consists of an approximately two kilometer long stage with both gravel and tarmac surface. The stage is run five times with three qualification heats and two heats in the final. Start, finish and service area is located to Lockarp Gokart track.
“This is a fast stage so all we can do is to just put the pedal to the metal. I’m expecting a tough competition with Johan Kristoffersson on the start line and I’m hoping for a good fight that keeps the spectators entertained. It would be silly to not aim for the win, but it will definitely be hard. I’m excited, the team is excited so now we just need to do our best with what we have got. It’s sad to not have Ola with us but the most important thing is that he gets the rest that he needs. Emil and me will have fun and enjoy this, it’s not every day that you are two drivers in the same car” said Pontus.
The first heat kicks off at 10 am local time on Friday morning and you can watch it live at SVTPlay.se.