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1999 International Swedish Rally Preview

12 February 1999

Introduction

Welcome to the 1999 International Swedish Rally

The Swedish Rally starts on Friday, 12 February in Karlstad, Sweden and
ends on Sunday afternoon.   The rally starts and finishes in Karlstad and
heads north-west into Dalarna during the 2nd Leg.  The stages are fast and
flowing, there are few slow corners or jumps and hopefully there is a lot
of snow!

The first two legs contain 142km of competition stages and a final shorter
leg of 99km combine to give more than 384km, 1500 total. Leg 2 contains the
feared Jutbo stage, the most demanding of the rally and at almost 48kmm one
of the longest in the championship. A super special stage at Kalvholmens
Motorstadium ends the opening leg with a spectacular floodlit test at Falun
ski stadium, where two cars race side by side in the shadow of the massive
ski jump, ends the second leg.

A non-Nordic driver has never won the Swedish Rally, mainly due to the
specialised driving technique required.  The stages are very fast with
average speeds of up to 110km/h - similar to Finland but without the
'yumps'.  Studded tyres are used to gain grip in the snow and the snow
banks on the side of the roads are often used to slow the car down before
entering a corner. Also, there are many variations on snow which have
different handling characteristics and local drivers  have a lot more
experience on these surfaces.

Mitsubishi
  Event favourite, Tommi Makinen will be determined to make this his third
Rally of Sweden victory and second win for the season. Giving him an
uncustomary head start over his rivals. In previous years Tommis start to
the season has forced him to come from behind to win the championship.

"I enjoy driving on these kind of roads very much. We  showed in Monte
Carlo that the car is very good and for a Finn, it is always important to
try to beat the Swedes!"  said  Makinen.

Loix will be competing in his first Swedish Rally and will play a
supporting rally to Makinen.


Subaru
  Kankkunen, Burns and Thiry will all be competing in Sweden as will Juha
Kangas who will drive a Grp N Impreza.  Britains Richard Burns says that
despite his relative inexperience of the event, that he has to feel bullish
about his prospects, "Like many  drivers I guess, I really like Sweden and
driving on the  snow. To get the tyres and studs to generate grip, you have
to work the car about, so your driving style is necessarily flamboyant,
and there is nothing to be achieved by being neat."
Juha Kankkunen last won this event in 1986 in a Peugot but after a 2nd
place in the Monte he is looking for a top result.