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Molly's Blog February - Snow, Snow, Snow! |
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I’ve just had a pretty amazing couple of weeks. Unexpectedly, I was given the opportunity to work at Rally Sweden with M-Sport and the Ford Hospitality team. So, suddenly I ended up in Sweden, deep in snow and in temperatures that ranged from minus 14 to minus 20 during the week. It was so cold that the hydraulic fluid in the car jacks froze in the service park.
My first few days were spent doing a recce of the spectating route planned for the Team Guests over the weekend. It was so beautiful driving through completely white forests, and the snow was so soft, that when you walked through the snow banks you quickly ended up waist deep in snow!
It was such a privilege to be part of the M-Sport team at a WRC event. The guests that I helped look after were mainly from Estonia and consequently they were much more used to standing out in the snowy forests in freezing temperatures than I was. They were really enthusiastic and fun to be with, which made the weekend a lot of fun for me too. Mind you – there were some really early mornings and late nights.
I had already planned a trip to Sweden for the following week to do some driving on a frozen lake, so instead of returning to the UK after the rally, I headed straight up towards the Norwegian border. It was supposed to be a four hour trip, but it ended up taking five hours because the sat nav guided me into the middle of a Swedish Forest and sitting at a “Road Closed” sign. It was pitch dark and the road was really narrow and deep snow.. It took a 20 point turn to turn around as I was worried I might get stuck in the snow, and I wasn’t too keen at the thought of spending the night in the middle of nowhere, in the freezing cold, sleeping in my car!
I was invited by Pat Flyn (who runs a Peugeot 205 and BMW challenge in the UK) to spend a few days with him, his family and other friends and drivers at the winter ice driving school he runs through February: www.icedrivesweden.com
They have a massive frozen lake with various tracks cut through it. The lake is 4.5 kilometre long and 1.3 kilometre wide and because they are so far north and high above sea level the lake area enjoys really cold weather which in turn means really good ice! They operate on the lake for a month every year using a variety of cars. I don’t think I have ever had so much fun and learnt so much in such a short period of time. I was able to jump between a front wheel drive Peugeot, an Audi Quattro, BMW 325 and a BMW 328 and it was such a good learning experience to adapt to each car. And the skids were awesome!
We don’t have anything comparable at home. It is such an effective learning environment, and no trees in the way, just snowbanks. For me, feeling like I’d had such a long break out of the car, it was so valuable to spend hours behind the wheel of all sorts of different cars and I am extremely grateful to the Flyns’ for giving me the opportunity.
As well as driving tuition, we also had lots of races and competitions, which kept everyone on their game. The competition even extended to riding push bikes on the lake and my advice to anyone who tries it - although the snow looks soft – beware the ice underneath hurts!
At 11.30pm one night it was decided that sitting on a sledge behind one of the BMW’s would be a good idea. The aim of the game was to see how long we could hang on for. Luckily the snow was soft because there were a fair few snow banks and ditches that I ended up in around midnight. We all took turns – one driving, one scouting and the other on the sledge. At one point I was struggling to breathe through the laughter and tears, especially when one of the girls went sailing over a bank, and landed in another.
I am now on the plane travelling back to the UK after only two and a half hours sleep and a six hour drive across Sweden to Stockholm airport (which again involved misguided sat navs and just making the plane). The roads were covered in snow and the only marks in the snow were my wheel tracks and some footprints from deer that had walked across the road shortly before I got there.
I am heading across to Ireland this evening to spend the weekend with the McCormacks and the crew to spend a couple of good days in the workshop working on the C2. I will keep you posted next week on how the car is coming along and hopefully I’ll have a few photos of the build as well.
I think its now time to catch up on some sleep.
Molly
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Last Updated ( Mar 03, 2010 )
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Molly's Blog 
