Mikkelsen Rallies To WRC Class Win With Skoda In Oslo

MILTON KEYNES, UNITED KINGDOM – November 29, 2010: In front of a sell-out 15,000 crowd at the Telenor Arena in Oslo, Škoda UK Motorsport driver Andreas Mikkelsen drove a Škoda Fabia World Rally Car to WRC Class victory at the Solberg Extreme MotorShow on Saturday (November 27).

Driving the last Fabia WRC ever built by Škoda Motorsport, which is owned by his manager Erik Veiby, Andreas knocked out Anders Grondal (the WRC Class Norwegian Rally Champion) in the semi-finals, before beating Patrik Sandell (who was driving Henning Solberg’s Focus WRC) in the final.

It was the second time that Petter and Henning Solberg had hosted the Solberg Extreme MotorShow, with its spectacular asphalt course of high jumps and corners covering the football pitch.

In addition to Andreas and to the Solberg brothers, Gigi Galli, Mikko Hirvonen, Armin Schwarz, Dani Sordo and former world champions Juha Kankkunen and Tommi Makinen also took part.

Andreas’ busy programme with Škoda continues over the coming days. He’ll attend the Autosport Awards at the Grosvenor House in London on Sunday (December 5) before flying to France for a test and then on to Italy for the Bologna Rallysprint (December 10-12), where he’ll drive a Škoda Fabia S2000, run by Škoda Rally Team Italia. The Rallysprint takes place in the Mobil 1 Arena and is part of the Bologna Motor Show – which attracted almost half a million visitors last year. Andreas has appeared at the Bologna Rallysprint once before, driving a Focus WRC in 2006.

Andreas: “It was great to drive in front of such a big crowd of rally fans in Oslo. The Solberg Extreme MotorShow was for just for fun and to entertain the spectators, and even though it wasn’t too series, a win is still a win!

“I’m looking forward to going back to Bologna, although I think the track has been changed since I was there in 2006. There is normally a very big crowd, so I hope we can carry on this form and win again in Italy.”