Norway (J) - 16-18 Feb 07

Posted: February 20, 2007 9:47 AM

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Tony Jardine and Sean Moriarty complete Rally Norway
Sky Sports broadcaster Tony Jardine and Sean Moriarty of Motorsport News have successfully completed Rally Norway, the first ever World Rally Championship to be held in the country, with Jardine bringing to a close his first World Rally Championship on foreign soil, and Kerry man Moriartyfinishing his first ever World Rally Championship event. Battling through blizzards, deep snow, fog, and ice over three days, the media pairing finished a commendable 47th overall and 7th in class out of 63 finishers.

Castrol Ford driver Mikko Hirovonen won his second ever World Championship event, claiming top spot in Norway ahead of team-mate Marcus Gronholm, who now leads the World Championship. Pre-event tips given to the media duo from twice World Rally Champion Gronholm, allowed them to gain valuable insight into potential conditions during the challenging three day marathon event, which they were able to implement into their own line of attack.

Struggling for control after a flying finish to Stage 6 on the first day, the Sportinglife.com sponsored Fiesta ST failed to slow down in time, ploughing into a thick snow bank. Thankfully the strong Fiesta coped with the abuse, and carried Jardine and Moriarty through until the remote service, some 100km from the main Service area at the Viking Ship in Hamar.A further scary moment for team occurred when the Fiesta almost crashed into current World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb, during a road section between stages. Driver, Jardine, momentarily lost concentration, veering into the middle of the road as Loeb was approaching in the opposite direction. A last minute swerve from Jardine enabled the two cars to miss each other by a matter of inches.

The second leg of the rally proved to be difficult and dangerous. Thick snow and dense fog in the Winter Olympics area of Lillehammer, on top of the Norwegian mountains, lead to ‘white out’ and virtually no visibility.

After coming into service after Leg two, Jardine commented, “Trying to drive flat in fifth gear over crests in the mountains when you can’t see where you are landing is no fun. I was distinctly nervous and sometimes plain scared. The cancellation of the 44km stage at the beginning of the day was bitterly disappointing, and caused us to lose our rhythm for the rest of the day due to the stop-start nature of the second leg. The crew had been looking forward to the 44km monster stage, but it was cancelled after Briton Guy Wilkes hit a tree, bounced back into the road and blocked the stage with his Ford Focus WRC car.

”But on the final day the Sportinglife.com team got their wish to run through the monster stage plus three others, in more dynamic conditions. The day proved to be a total contrast to the previous day’s problems of cancellations, fog and deep snow. “Today has been totally different in contrast to yesterday. We have had fantastic visibility, conditions were ideal and we just flew,” Jardine said. “We were able to hold our position from a rival Renault Clio and two chasing Mitsubishis over the last 44km of incredible rollercoaster stages.” Olly Marshall and his ProSpeed team prepared an immaculate Castrol Ford Fiesta ST which never missed a beat, despite the rigours of three days and one night over more than 350 stage km. The only damage done to the car was in a huge sideways moment over the flying finish line of the final stage. Jardine lost control at 80mph, but the soft snow bank saved them, bouncing them back into the road damaging the rear bodywork. Said Moriarty after the incident, “We had been charging and the adrenaline was flowing, then we were flying towards the trees within sight of the finish board – I thought ‘not now, what a way to end’, but somehow we bounced back on to the road.

”Weather conditions at the World Championship event proved unpredictable, changing between snow, ice, mist and slush.

Temperatures went from as low as minus 20 to zero on the final day. Many cars were caught out, with some stages resembling car graveyards, but with help from Kumho, special spiked tyres were fitted to the Castrol Ford Fiesta providing a solid footing on all surfaces, allowing the team to constantly push hard on the stages.Co-driver Moriarty said, “Daniel Carlsson, competing in a Citroen Xsara WRC car, said it was one of the most difficult Winter Rallies he has ever competed on. With this in mind, I am ecstatic to have completed my first World Rally Championship in such a challenging environment.

I could not have asked for a more committed service team than ProSpeed to guide me through.”Olly Marshall, Managing Director of ProSpeed, ended, “It’s a successful finish for the team as well asfor Norway. Our Fiesta ST has been totally reliable throughout the rally, which meant that we could push hard without having to worry about the car not being able to cope. The organisation of the event has been first class, especially as it is Norway’s first attempt at hosting a World Rally Championship.”

Tony Jardine summed up his feelings about the first ever World Championship event in Norway: “The atmosphere was electric, with an estimated 100,000 plus fans waving flags, enjoying their barbeques and marvelling at the spectacle of World stars in sideways rally cars over three days. The whole event has been organised superbly.

The Norwegian people were very welcoming, the stages were tremendous and the views are amazing. It has turned out to be a real test of man and machine. “I have to thank my co-driver Sean Moriarty, who is not only a great hard-working journalist, but a great grafter of a co-driver too. He knows the co-drivers job inside out and pushed me throughout the rally.Without him we wouldn’t have had such a great result. It has been a pleasure working with him.

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Gallagher on course for World Title
Ireland’s Shaun Gallagher finished Rally Norway this weekend first in his class, picking up a coveted Junior World Championship point, and is leading in the Rookie category, setting the stage for an exciting Championship year. The Donegal driver was partnered by Welshman Clive Jenkins.

Despite an initial poor tyre choice on Leg 1, Saturday and Sunday saw Gallagher keep a steady pace in his Citroen whilst other competitors continued to struggle with the ice and snow of the Norwegian stages. He was delighted with his eighth place finish, but more so with finishing within the points. “I achieved my objective this weekend by securing a place on the leader board. As I get used to the car over the course of the Championship, I hope to move up the rankings and pick up more points along the way with the ultimate aim of securing the Rookie of the Year title. This is a great start to the year,” he said.
The JWRC Opening round was won by Sweden’s Per Gunnar Andersson in a Suzuki Swift with fellow countryman Patrick Sandell in second and Estonian’s Urmo Aava in third. World Rally Team Ireland owner, Tommy Mullen, said: “We’re very happy to finish in the points and are making plans for the next round in Portugal at the end of March. In the WRC competition in Norway, problems with the ice and snow resulted in the top teams driving their own rallies for a finish. BP Ford World Rally Team duo Mikko Hirvonen and Marcus Gronholm, both from Finland, held first and second places going into the final leg. Three and a half minutes behind them in third and fourth were Norwegian brothers Petter Soldberg (Subaru) and Henning Soldberg (Ford). Current World Champion Sebastian Loeb (France) had a disastrous rally, going off the road twice in Leg 2 and the resulting time delays dropping him to 16th overall and out of points contention.

This weekend saw Norway’s debut in the World Rally Championships and given the gap of over fourteen minutes in the top ten finishers, there were problems aplenty for competitors in coming to grips with the unfamiliar terrain. Rally Ireland, which makes its entry into the Championships in November this year, will doubtless prove a much more straightforward transition, albeit onto the unfamiliar and sometimes unpredictable tarmac of the north-west.

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Results:
www.wrc.com - World Rally Championship Offical Site
and
worldrallynews.com (WRC)

Photos:
rallyimage.com - Eymard Brennan Photography

Rally Norway

• 2007 FIA World Rally Championship

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PRE EVENT NEWS

• Tony Jardine and County Kerry Co-Driver Sean Moriarty to compete on Rally Norway
• Shaun Gallagher begins his JWRC campaign in Norway
  The Famous “46” Appears in Green on Rally Norway:

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07/02/07
Tony Jardine and County Kerry Co-Driver Sean Moriarty to compete on Rally Norway
Sky Sports broadcaster Tony Jardine and Sean Moriarty of Motorsport News will join forces for their debut assault on Rally Norway, the first ever World Championship Rally to be held in the country, between 16 -18 February. For Jardine it will be his first ever WRC event outside of the UK. The freezing winter conditions will pose a three day marathon challenge set in the same area as the Lillehammer Winter Olympic Games of 1994, with the service park – The Viking Ship – originally built as host to the speed skating events during the Games.

The media duo of Jardine and Moriarty will attempt to keep control of their Sportinglife.com backed Ford Fiesta ST over more than 220 stage miles, using special thin spiked Kumho tyres to cut through the ice. They will hope to steer clear of hazardous rocks buried in the snow, as well as any wandering reindeer whose home will be invaded by over 100 formidable rally stars and their cars, including 2007 championship protagonists Sebastien Loeb and Marcus Gronholm.

Rally veteran, driver Jardine, has competed in 14 RAC rallies at World Championship level as well as 7 European rally championship events in Scandinavia, although has never entered a World Rally Championship event outside of the UK. Co-driver Moriarty, originally from Tralee, County Kerry, will be providing navigational assistance for the Anglo/Irish partnership and will be entering his first ever World Rally Championship event, with 15 years rallying experience behind him.

One constant factor is Olly Marshall’s ProSpeed team who will again be running the Castrol Fiesta for Jardine, following their superb triple class wins together in the UK last year. Marshall, who already has considerable winter rally experience, driving in Monte Carlo 2004 and John Haugland’s Winter Rally School, commented, “Tony demonstrated that he is clearly able to rally with great commitment and pace at Wales Rally GB last year, although a WRC event set in the snow is an entirely different test. Visibility is frequently a major problem. You have to go all out if you want to even have a chance of completing a stage, let alone finish high up the ranking.”

Set in the land of rally superstar Petter Solberg, and fully supported by the Norwegian government through prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, the World Championship event will mean Jardine and Moriarty must face up to a monumental challenge. Sheet ice, heavy snow and blizzards all ask uninviting questions of a snowmobile, let alone a rally car. Equipped with specialised spiked Kumho tyres to guide the car through the treacherous icy stages, Jardine and Moriarty hope to navigate their Castrol sponsored Ford Fiesta ST safely over the finish line in Elverum.

The duo have already been working on their fitness levels for the event by running during the recent snow fall in the UK, however this will only go so far in preparing them for the temperatures in the Norwegian mountains, which regularly fall to a cool minus 10 degrees.

Jardine commented, “Rallying in Norway is always a fantastic experience, although it is an extremely demanding environment. Gauging the speed of the car can be almost impossible at times, especially in a blizzard when the snow falling in front of you fills your vision and can easily mesmerise you. Total concentration is needed at all times, and Sean has the unenviable task of guiding us through the perilous conditions which can so often turn to total ‘white out’ when you lose orientation, never mind navigational references.”

World Rally stars who will be battling it out at the front of the field include current World Champion Sebastien Loeb, winner of the recent Monte Carlo Rally, after his comeback from an earlier bicycle crash; as well as Marcus Gronholm, who believes he can fight his way back to win the event in Norway. Jardine and Moriarty will be engaged in a battle of their own, with eleven Ford Fiesta ST’s all determined to take first in class.

ProSpeed will be running the Sportinglife.com Ford Fiesta ST, and providing all on-event support for the team. Team boss Olly Marshall, formerly a successful Junior World Rally competitor, said, “We ran the Fiesta in Wales Rally GB, the British round of the World Rally Championship, with Tony as driver. Before an unexpected suspension failure, which forced us to pull out on the final day, the car was on course to finish third in class. After that disappointing retirement we are all hoping for a good finish in Norway, although this is by no means an easy feat. We are really pleased Castrol have backed use for another World Championship event, and we hope to bring them a successful result.”

In the UK most would be competition drivers dream of being a racing driver. Almost all wannabe Norwegian drivers, on the other hand, aspire to be a rally driver; just like their hero Petter Solberg. As rallying is so popular in Norway, there is no doubt that hundreds of thousands of spectators will fill the frozen forests, thrilling to the sights and sounds of Norway’s first World Championship Rally. The rugged beauty of Norway’s landscape will provide awe inspiring action through some of the most breathtaking surroundings on the World Rally circuit, with drivers being confronted with narrow winter roads through both forests and mountainous terrain, in the home of rallying itself – Scandinavia.

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Shaun Gallagher begins his JWRC campaign in Norway, with Co-driver Clive Jenkins
The Famous “46” Appears in Green on Rally Norway

Despite appearances, Valentino Rossi has NOT entered the Rally Norway round of the F.I.A. World Rally Championship (WRC) running from February 16th to 18th 2007.

World Rally Team Ireland, running Donegal man Shaun Gallagher (the 2003 Billy Coleman Award Winner) in a Citroen C2R2 in the F.I.A. Junior WRC, has been allocated the famous #46 for the year. Shaun maintains that this has to be worth a second or two!

Rally Norway is a major challenge, as it is one of only two Snow Rallies in the Championship, where temperatures can fall as low as -25 Celsius.

Shaun will be partnered by Welshman Clive Jenkins, who was selected because of his considerable experience on all rounds of the Junior WRC, where he has co-driven with success for people like Guy Wilks and others in the past years. Clive comes highly recommended by Phil Mills, who is co-driver for Subaru works driver Petter Solberg.

World Rally Team Ireland was created by Sligo businessman Tommy Mullen with the help of Tom Nolan in order to provide an obviously Irish presence on the World Rally Championship. The intention is to develop an Irish Team and an Irish Driver to eventually enable participation on the highest level of this most prestigious international competition.

In the first year, World Rally Team Ireland have entered the F.I.A. Junior category, in the “Rookie Trophy”. However, due to the interest expressed in the project by various other drivers, the team are considering running a second car at a later stage.

Drivers participating in their first season of the F.I.A. Junior WRC are eligible to score points towards a Rookie Trophy only if they are driving one of the following types of car:
- Group N cars with an engine capacity of less than 2000cc
- Selected Group A cars with an engine capacity of less than 1600cc (which are accepted by the F.I.A.)

Citroen produced the C2R2 model specifically to meet the “Rookie Trophy” requirements, which means that, while the car is not as powerful as it’s Super 1600 cousin, it will still benefit from Citroen’s suspension and development expertise. Hopefully this will give World Rally Team Ireland an opportunity to provide the occasional surprise result by mixing it with the big boys on a “David versus Goliath” basis.

The F.I.A. Junior category is devised as a support championship to the full World Rally Championship (WRC), and was launched with the clear objective of providing a stepping stone to the WRC for drivers as well as teams, mechanics, and manufacturers. Drivers must be 28 years or younger at the start of the calendar year.

• Shaun Gallagher to Contest 2007 JWRC in Citroen C2-R2

Rally Norway

• 2007 FIA World Rally Championship