Scoobies or Evos

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The Subaru World Rally Team heads to the snow-bound forest roads of Sweden with the aim of continuing its positive start to the 2007 World Rally Championship.

Following the fourth and sixth-place finishes achieved by Chris Atkinson/Glenn Macneall and Petter Solberg/Phil Mills respectively on Rallye Monte Carlo last month, the team is focusing its efforts on consistent, reliable performances on the back-to-back events in Sweden and Norway.

The Swedish Rally is one of the most unpredictable and extreme events of the season. Despite the ever-present ice and snow – plus temperatures that can fall as low as minus 25 Celsius – the drivers will still be in maximum attack mode on the special stages in the forests near Hagfors, a small town in the centre of the Scandinavian country.

The roads are fast and flowing – indeed, this is the second-fastest rally on the WRC calendar, behind Rally Finland, and last year the average speed of the winning car was 110.78kph. To be on the pace on ice, the drivers have to be confident enough to drive at high speed in the treacherous conditions. The roads are covered with a layer of soft snow and a base of hard ice, and the two Impreza World Rally Cars will be fitted with studded BFGoodrich tyres. The studs, which are tungsten-tipped, can cut through to the base layer and provide a surprising amount of grip.

Rallying in Sweden is a technical challenge that both Petter and Chris greatly enjoy. The drivers use the tall snow banks that line the edges of the roads as an aid to ‘steer’ their cars around corners. They also have to cope with poor visibility, caused by the blanket of snow. Some drivers wear special tinted glasses to reduce glare and help them define the road clearly at high speed.

The route for this year’s Swedish Rally is very similar to last year, with most of the special stages taking place to the north-west and east of the main service area in Hagfors. The crews will battle over 20 special stages and a total of 342.09 competitive kilometres.

One change to the route is the introduction of a Super Special Stage situated on the outskirts of Karlstad, the base town for the rally. The rally organisers have created a spectator-friendly 1.9km test around the grounds of the Farjestad horse trotting track. The event begins with the first run around the Super Special at 2000hrs on Thursday 8 February and ends in the same location at 1400hrs on Sunday 11 February.

The event is paired with Rally Norway, on the WRC calendar for the first time. The event takes place the following weekend and is based across the border in Hamar, just 250kms from Karlstad

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The Subaru World Rally Team heads to Sweden with the same brace of Impreza WRCs that started Rallye Monte Carlo. Petter Solberg/Phil Mills will drive car number seven, while Chris Atkinson/Glenn Macneall will be in car number eight. Petter has contested the Swedish Rally eight times and won here in 2005. Chris has fond memories of the event, because he started his career with the team on the Swedish Rally in 2005. His best finish on the snow is 11th place, achieved last year.