Tidemand second in the Swedish Rally Championship season premiere
At this weekend’s Swedish Rally Championship premiere, Pontus Tidemand and his co-driver Morten Erik Abrahamsen kicked off their season in an ice cold way in the city of Boden in the north of Sweden. Despite not having a trouble free rally, they finished second and have a great position for the rest of the year. “Considering the big challenge this weekend I’m pleased with second place, but I’m hoping to fight for the victory at the next event” commented Pontus.
For the first time in 38 years, Norrbotten county got to host a Swedish Rally Championship event and about 50 cars came to start in the extremely cold weather. The two first stages, one longer and one spectator stage were run already on Friday evening and the crews immediately got a reminder of the tough challenge that awaited them.
“The snow dust was my biggest issue throughout the whole event” explained Pontus. “We started as car number five on day one, but the start position didn’t matter much since all cars after the first one had the same difficulties. When the air is that cold, 30 degrees below, the snow dust from the cars stays in the air and it was literally like driving into a white wall on the first stage.”
After a rough start, Pontus decided to attack as much as possible on the following spectator stage and set an impressively quick time – 7,7 seconds ahead of leading P-G Andersson on the 4,20 km short and technical stage.
On Saturday, the snow dust still caused problems although the cars started with longer intervals and the daylight improved the situation.
“It was really hard to see breaking points and how to enter the corners so I couldn’t get the rhythm I wanted. On the sixth stage we also hit a snow bank in a junction and picked up some snow, which made us lose power on pretty much the whole stage” said Pontus.
On the penultimate stage of the rally, luck finally found Pontus again. Everything worked properly so he could push and managed to be fastest on the two last stages, including the Powerstage, which gives him valuable championship points in addition to his secured second place in the rally.
“A fun start of the season with amazing winter roads. It’s a very nice feeling to be in the game and I’m really happy with my co-driver and the team’s efforts and hard work. Considering the big challenge this weekend, I’m pleased with second place, but with that said I’m hoping to be able to fight for the win at the next event. We’re aiming for a full season in the championship so hopefully we have an exciting year to look forward to” said Pontus.