A number of total 54 cars are registered to WRC where there are a lot of changes seen in the WRC since last year. Sebastien Ogier is now behind the wheel in Toyota and into the Japanese-Finnish team is now also stepping up the young Finnish talent and winner of the 2019 WRC2 class, Kalle Rovanperä. Also announced is four-time Rally Sweden winner, Jari-Matti Latvala. This year in a own private team. The Estonian winner from last year and also the winner of the 2019 WRC, Ott Tanak comes to Sweden in a new team when he runs for Hyundai this year. Hyundai who won the brand championship last year also puts Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Loeb on the starting line.
The fight for WRC2 in Rally Sweden will be of great interest to the Swedish rally fans. When the registration is now closed, former WRC2 champion Pontus Tideman, double world champion in rallycross, Johan Kristoffersson and future star Oliver Solberg are among the Swedish flagged cars in the class. It will be rock hard and where surely the WRC veteran, Norwegian Mads Östberg wants a word in the game. His compatriot Ole Christian Veiby also becomes someone to watch out for when he starts this year in one of Hyundai’s new R5s.
Swedish WRC driver Pontus Tidemand starts the season 2020 by being back in WRC2, the class he won in 2017.
– I am really happy to be able to run my home competition this year and now with Toksport WRT in a Skoda, Tidemand commented when the announcement was official.
Rally Sweden also opens this year’s JVM. This class includes last year’s winner from last year’s rally, Tom Kristensson. Dennis Rådström, who is aiming for the European Championships this year, also makes a guest appearance. And a debut in JVM makes Pontus Lönnström.
Extended entry in Historic
With 100 million TV viewers and over 200,000 visitors around the rally, Rally Sweden is Sweden’s largest public sporting event. And it’s not just WRC cars and future world champions running during the days of mid-February. The popular class of Historic is an appreciated feature of the rally. Over 20 teams have already make an entry for this year’s competition, where the organizer has now extended the entry period to 31 January.
– We want to wait a bit and see where the weather takes us. Prio is on the verge of completing the competition for the WRC cars, that is the mission we have and then it feels right today to extend the entry for Historic that we really hope to be able to run this year too, says Glenn Olsson.
All participants in Historic will also be compensated with a reimbursed registration fee in the same percentage as the proportion of set SS-km. (10% set SS-km = 10% refunded registration fee, 100% canceled SS-km = 100% refunded registration fee, etc.). More information and the latest on Historic can be found at https://rallysweden.com/en/competitors/noticeboard-historic/
The World Rally Championship starts with the premiere in Monte-Carlo January, 23-26. After that, Rally Sweden is on the line for February 13-16.
