Bäck: A Thrilling Challenge for the Drivers

“This stage is truly something extraordinary. It is almost circular, which makes it very special. The start and finish are almost in the same place, giving us a stage with really great variation,” he explains.

The Bäck stage stretches over a mile and begins on a charming village road with curves that make the drivers work with the car’s steering. After a few kilometers, the stage transitions into a narrower, more technical forest road where the drivers will have to brake to navigate through tight passages.

“This is a really narrow and technical section, where the speed will be low,” Joakim explains, adding:
“But then the drivers come out onto a faster section where it becomes high-speed and challenging again.”

And for the spectators? They will be treated to a long stretch of open fields in Rickleå, where they can follow the drivers at high speed for an extended period. Joakim believes that this area offers some of the best viewing spots at the entire rally.

“It’s a fantastic place for people to watch the rally. Here, you can follow the cars for a long time and really get a sense of the speed and the technique,” he says.

Choosing the right stages for Rally Sweden requires careful and extensive work. Joakim explains that it’s about more than just finding the best rally roads.

“It’s like a puzzle where we have to consider timetables, traffic flows, and how the stages match each other. We want the distances between them to be short so that there is a good flow between transports and sufficient service space for all teams,” he says.

For Joakim, it is also important that each stage offers a mix of technical challenges and high speed – and Bäck definitely fits into that category.