Molly's Blog - 5th February 2011

Scandinavian adventure complete and I am now on a plane to Vienna for the next leg!

It’s been a pretty full on week, but having the opportunity to get some more time in the car, especially in the snow & ice conditions was fantastic.

It all began last Friday, and after enlisting help from some of the guys at work, (think they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time!) we packed as many studded tyres, tools and bags as physically possible into the Fiesta R2 for the journey to Sweden/Norway. It was going to be too expensive to take a car and trailer on the ferry, so decided to drive the rally car instead. We had everything covered in layers of bubble wrap and cardboard as the studded tyres are sharp as I was quick to found out..

With the car ready we loaded it onto the trailer as I had convinced Rich from work it would be a great idea to tow me at least 3 hours down the road in a normal road car before unloading and driving the rally car onto the ferry.  The ferry was a 28 hour freight ferry from Immingham to Gothenburg, Sweden. I was a little apprehensive as to what this boat was going to be like but thankfully I had my own room. Coincidently there turned out to be more rally people also on the boat and they were taking some cars across to the same lake in Sweden I was heading to. The food was a bit like being back at boarding school but actually better than I had expected.

My plan was to drive a couple of hundred km’s up the road after the boat docked and then drive the rest of the journey to Ice Drive Sweden the following morning. It was nice and fresh when we arrived into the Swedish docks and the sea was full of big ice chunks, which was a new sight for me. The first driving leg wasn’t too bad, mainly motorways and major roads. I was heavily rugged up as the rally car had no heater and I had a headset on to try and drown out some of the noise. The hotel mum booked for the first night was off the freeway and turned out to be a bowling club come hotel. There was only one big car park out the front, so I took some fuses out of the car and then spent every couple of hours waking up and looking out the window to check it was still there!!

I think I underestimated the time it takes to get anywhere in Sweden, or just how far into the middle of nowhere I was heading. As I started to climb up the mountains the roads became icier and temperature much much colder. After about 5 hours I made it to the lake at Pat Flynn’s Ice Drive Sweden in need of some heat and a cuppa!

The next two days were spent out on the lake driving a variety of BMW’s which was great practice for car control. I have not spent a lot of time in rear wheel drive and being able to play around on a big frozen lake was a real treat. It was particularly fun going out late at night without full lights!

The next leg of the journey to John Hauglands rally school in Norway was yet another underestimation on my part.. The distance didn’t look too bad on a map, (just over 350km) however it was heading west across the various mountain ranges and icy back roads. After a few small detours off course and stops to buy more maps, I eventually made it to Geilo, Norway at about 4pm. It was so nice to get into a hot shower and get some feeling back into my feet at that point!

The plan was to spend the following day out on the lake at John Haugland’s winter rally school in the Fiesta R2. We met up that evening for dinner (which included first course of mussel soup!?) and it was a great chance to discuss my plans for this year and what we could get out of the day on the lake. I was sharing the day with Craig Breen, who had brought his Fiesta S2000 car there ahead of WRC Sweden.

The day on the lake was really valuable and I made lots of improvements. The more time I am spending in the car, the more I am getting to know it, the more I am improving. The lake is such a fantastic place to practice technique with no danger of damaging the car. Driving on proper studs also is a bit surreal to begin with but very rewarding. I lost count of how many kms I did, but we went through a fair bit of fuel.  All too quickly it was getting dark and we had to call it a day.

Just in case the past week hadn’t been busy enough, I then rushed back to the hotel so I could change, re pack bags and head to the train station for the late night train down to Oslo. After a quick bite to eat I closed my eyes and didn’t wake up until Oslo.. I had a few hours in a hotel at the airport and then up again for an early flight to Vienna via Copenhagen.

I have to say it’s a mixture of excitement and nerves heading into the FIA Young Driver Excellence Selection event this weekend but I am really looking forward to the challenge. I will report back soon.

Molly