Rally Sweden 2018

[McGherkin]

So this year, I was given a frankly excellent opportunity to go to Rally Sweden, for the whole event. It was an escorted tour which was well worth the money as I highly doubt I'd have seen half the stages I saw if I was doing it myself.

I took over 2000 pictures over the course of the weekend but I won't bore you with all of them. Just my 'top picks'. There's also a s**t tonne of videos to edit together at some point too. There'll be a fair few posts in this thread!

Arrived in Sweden on Wednesday to be greeted with temperatures as low as.... oh. It's warmer here than it was back in the UK. Weather over the whole weekend was fairly mild, although there was some snow here and there, with a big snow storm during the powerstage on Sunday. Plenty of snow on the ground though, much to Ogier's disgust, and with big snow banks. It's been the best conditions at Rally Sweden for some time.

Without further ado...

Thursday - SHAKEDOWN
Shakedown is a pretty good stage to get to, as you get to see all the cars running the stage multiple times, and the drivers are very open and approachable whilst queuing to start. The stage starts first thing in the morning just as the sun is coming up, but was a great taster of what was to come.

 

[McGherkin]

Thursday - SERVICE AND SUPERSPECIAL
Moving on from Shakedown we chased the cars back to Torsby Airport to see the shakedown service at lunchtime. For those who haven't seen Hyundai's garage, it's massive, a proper F1 spec effort and puts the other teams' hospitality to shame. After that it was off to Karlstad to see the Superspecial and ceremonial start. I didn't get a great view of the actual stage but was right where the cars lined up beforehand. There were also some resident nutters jumping snowmobiles like they were dirtbikes.

 

[McGherkin]

Friday - Svullyra 1, Hof-Finnskog 2 and Service 'C'
With the rally now fully underway it was time for the first 'proper' stages. I didn't get a great view of Svullyra, but at Hof-Finnskog I got a proper win - a local Norweigan kid rocked up on an ATV with a very dodgy looking sled behind it, and some seats nailed to it. He claimed he could get us to a better part of the stage, and to be honest I just wanted to experience near death on the sled, which almost happened on a few occasions as the thing nearly tipped over whilst matey was driving the ATV flat out down a back road. True to his word though, we ended up at one of the fastest sections of the stage, with the cars passing flat out in 6th. You can really see the aero working on the current cars by the height of the dust trail, they are properly rapid these days and when they're zipping past at well over 100 you know it!

I did get to Service C where I was in M-Sport's VIP hospitality, but there wasn't much to see there. I have some pics, I might post them at a later date, but truthfully I had a worse view than the public did. Ogier was really not a happy bunny by that point.

 

[McGherkin]

Saturday - COLIN'S CREST
Saturday was a big one, two stages and they were both the big jumps of the rally. Colin's Crest barely needs an introduction - The legendary jump is now one of the biggest spectator areas of the whole rally and I was lucky to get somewhere near the front. The atmosphere is absolutely mental - thousands of people all in the forest, most of them absolutely hammered. Big campfires, big soundsystems on sledges and lots of crazy costumes. Ostberg took this year's biggest jump with 42m, but Suninen managed to land on the bank.

 

[Mr Burns]

I've never been an F1 fan, but the WRC is much more my cup of tea! Very jealous that you got the chance to experience Rally Sweden, it must've been awesome.
No surprise that Ostberg jumped the furthest, I think that's the only reason he enters lol.
Hopefully one day I'll get the same opportunity!

 

[McGherkin]

Saturday-HAGFORS
With Colin's Crest done, we moved on to the next big jump - Hagfors now finishes on a ski slope, and there's a nice big jump at the top of it. I managed to score the absolute perfect position and despite plenty of smoke from yet more bonfires (there's a bit of a theme here), I'm really happy with some of these shots.

 

[Mr Burns]

Great angle.

 

[McGherkin]

Sunday - Likenas
Yep, the stage with the amusing name. Sat through both runs of this stage, it's a rallycross track so you get reasonably close. Weather wasn't great and it was still fairly dark but a great atmosphere again.

 

[McGherkin]

Sunday - POWERSTAGE
The final stage of the rally, and right outside Torsby airport and the finish podium. I had the choice of either the stage or the podium, and I chose to get the last bit of action for the rally, which turned out to be a good call since someone with a very enthusiastic trigger finger was operating the smoke machine at the podium and fucked up everybody's shots. Towards the end there was a full on snowstorm so apologies for the quality!

 

[McGherkin]

Wrap up - Sweden
Wanted to share some of my more general shots of Sweden, it's an amazing place with awesome views everywhere. The place is VERY expensive to live in, but at the same time, everybody has houses which are twice the size of the UK average. The place usually seems completely deserted, but when the rally comes, everybody comes out of nowhere and they're a properly happy, friendly lot. Well recommend a trip over to see the place.

That's it, I'm done! For now anyway. Enjoy

 

[Matt W]

Cracking photos!

 

[McGherkin]

I've never been an F1 fan, but the WRC is much more my cup of tea! Very jealous that you got the chance to experience Rally Sweden, it must've been awesome.
No surprise that Ostberg jumped the furthest, I think that's the only reason he enters lol.
Hopefully one day I'll get the same opportunity!

Seriously dude, it's so worth going to at least one. Wales isn't the easiest but even so it's still completely worth it. F1 keeps you miles away from the action and the stars, whereas you couldn't get closer with the WRC, sometimes a bit too close! (Seeing Hayden Paddon take a piss at the side of the road is a scene indelibly burned into my mind). I might do Wales this year, see how it goes.

The current aero spec cars are pretty mental now. Having seen the 2015 cars it's just a step above. More power, more grip, they bloody shift!

Great angle.

Yeah, it was epic to stand there... if a littlecompletely unsafe.

Cracking photos!

Cheers :smile:

 

[Mr R.]

No Impreza?

 

[Tim.]

It's like it was meant to be - McDriftin' goes to a rally on the white stuff, in the Volvo motherland.

Good write-up and great pics of what looks like a superb trip.

 

[McGherkin]

No Impreza?

Afraid not!

LOL @Tim. 6 Volvos on one roundabout, came back with a red raw stump.

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Great pictures! How the WRC isn't more popular baffles me. It makes 99.99% of other motorsport look utterly pansy by comparison. Went to GB last year and the new cars are epic. Like you say, a huge step up from the previous gen machines.

Going to a WRC round abroad is very high up my list, just not sure which one to go to.

 

[shiftspark]

Very good pictures old chap, did you get many more in the service area ? I went last year to Wales and spent an hour or so at the Toyota stand chatting to the mechanics.
The cars are on a par with the group b stuff from years gone by.

 

[shiftspark]

Spain is worth a visit.

 

[McGherkin]

Great pictures! How the WRC isn't more popular baffles me. It makes 99.99% of other motorsport look utterly pansy by comparison. Went to GB last year and the new cars are epic. Like you say, a huge step up from the previous gen machines.

Going to a WRC round abroad is very high up my list, just not sure which one to go to.

It's a proper motorsport. Even though it's safer than the old days, there's still no margin for error and the drivers are still utterly, utterly mental. As for which rally to go for, As Shiftspark says, Spain is a great rally to go to, Portugal is too. I really do recommend Sweden though. Whatever you do, I would have to go escorted again. When I did Wales last, it was a constant nightmare of trying to work out which stage you could get to before the start, particularly when I woke up late, missing the stage we were camped at. You also have a fair bit of walking etc and you have to guess the best spots - with an escorted tour it's all taken care of, and with my one they were able to get the coach closer to the stage than anybody else, and when to leave the stage is critical too.

Very good pictures old chap, did you get many more in the service area ? I went last year to Wales and spent an hour or so at the Toyota stand chatting to the mechanics.
The cars are on a par with the group b stuff from years gone by.

Let me see...

View attachment 1357353

 

[Ian_182]

Great pics.
Looks a bit fresh.

 

[Djw John]

Great thread, looks like a superb weekend away.

 

[S-JM]

Awesome pictures! Some of the aero on those cars is mental, the Yaris especially, woof!

 

[McGherkin]

Great pics.
Looks a bit fresh.

Wasn’t bad at all, was always around 0, usually a couple of degrees over. At Colin’s Crest I was in a T shirt, although one of the pissup groups there was run by a bloke in a full suit, lol.

Awesome pictures! Some of the aero on those cars is mental, the Yaris especially, woof!

Absolutely, and it works too. Just look at Breen’s car on Hof-finnskog, they hoover up absolutely everything and chuck it skywards, not great if you’re a photographer stood behind the car but great for the drivers!

Incidentally Toyota covered up the rear arch vents on the Yaris at first because they thought they would get blocked up with snow. They’re probably right, but I don’t know why they didn’t just leave them open hoping that they’d work for at least the first few KM of the stage. Everybody else left theirs open, and didn’t seem to struggle with it, so I think Toyota maybe missed a trick there.

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

It's a proper motorsport. Even though it's safer than the old days, there's still no margin for error and the drivers are still utterly, utterly mental. As for which rally to go for, As Shiftspark says, Spain is a great rally to go to, Portugal is too. I really do recommend Sweden though. Whatever you do, I would have to go escorted again. When I did Wales last, it was a constant nightmare of trying to work out which stage you could get to before the start, particularly when I woke up late, missing the stage we were camped at. You also have a fair bit of walking etc and you have to guess the best spots - with an escorted tour it's all taken care of, and with my one they were able to get the coach closer to the stage than anybody else, and when to leave the stage is critical too.

Who ran the guide you went on? Have always fancied the idea of trying an escorted one.

I wouldn't mind trying Spain. Corsica is quite high up my list too, as I am definitely a tarmac guy. Monte is on the list as well. I'd probably go to all of them if I could though!

 

[McGherkin]

Rallytravel.com, thoroughly recommended. The bloke who did our trip has done Rally Sweden 21 times and we had an absolute demon of a coach driver, drove that bus on snow quicker than most would drive on tarmac, and wasn’t afraid to push past the marshals to get to the best parking spots too. Was £700ish for the trip but that included the accomodation which was actually nearly as much as that on its own if you tried to book separately.

On the Monte they were all flying around by helicopter, lol.

 

[shiftspark]

Rallytravel email me from time to time, worth a look

 

[andy mac]

been twice now with rally travel, Portugal and Spain both great rallies, bus takes you right up to stage
so not far to walk, keep you upto date with driver position through out the day

 

[Chris.B]

Great write up and cracking pics @McGherkin. What camera do you use?

 

[McGherkin]

Cheers :smile:

I use a Nikon D3300, with a cheapie Sigma 70-300mm lens for the long stuff and either a 35mm f1.8 or 18-55mm kit lens for the closer stuff.

 

[McGherkin]

Just to wrap up, have a shaky video.

 

[Daz...]

Great report from the motherland.

Amazing scenery with bonkers cars, doesn’t get much better.