The Saabs United Historic Rally Team did well in that they simply managed to finish the event with both cars running. Remember, these were two brand new cars that were only completed in the days before the event and one of our drivers, Vladimir Antonov, was driving in his first rally event.
And then there’s the blown engine and all the drama of finding and installing a replacement overnight.
To the placings, then….
Our #1 Car, the black 99T, with Jörgen Trued driving and Bo Janzon navigating came in 21st position.
Our #2 car, the white 99T with Vladimir Antonov driving and Denis Giraudet navigating came in 23rd position.
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Saab did well with good connections in other classes, too.
Jörgen’s uncle, Bertil Trued, won his class (Regularity, no tripmeter) in his Saab 96.
Stefan Helin came third in his class (Regularity, with tripmeter) in a Saab 99EMS.
The Historic Class (up to 1000cc) was won by Stefan Segerljung in a Saab 96 850 Monte Carlo
And finally, Kenneth Bäcklund from the Saab Performance Team won his 1600-2000cc D3 category in his Ford Escort RS.
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Congratulations to all the competitors and well done to our guys in the Saabs United Historic Rally Team!
Today is the start of the final day in the Midnight Sun rally.
I spoke to Jörgen on the phone last night and after the drama of the previous day, he was a very relieved man.
The great news is that both cars – including the #1 car with the transplanted engine – made it through Day 2 unscathed. Well, almost unscathed. There may be a few marks or even indentations here and there where the conservatism of the regularity class was overlooked but both cars are running and will start the day looking to finish the event.
I’ll be posting the results to the site as soon as I hear that both cars are over the line.
Last night, I reported that the engine in the #1 car seized up. Initial reports diagnosed an oil pressure problem, but the more the team looked into things, the more serious the situation became. This was no minor problem, it was a case of the engine going off to Valhalla, leaving our black Saab 99 Turbo high and dry.
As you may have seen in comments over at SU, Jörgen mentioned that they were going to try and transplant another engine into the #1 car.
So here’s how it happened…..
The engine came from another 99T, which was owned by a friend of the team. The car was purchased from him, and taken to a garage about 30 minutes away. They started at around 11pm last night and finished, with the engine running, at 3:30 this morning!
Just before 8am, I had the pleasure of watching the #1 roll in to the Museum car park under its own power.
The guys responsible for this massive effort are from Historic Rally Racing Team, a Swedish firm full of Saab nuts, who are specialists in preparing and repairing older Saabs exactly for this sort of work.
They also looked over the #2 car, which had a cooling problem yesterday. It turns out the cooling fan is operated by a switch, rather than being operated automatically by the thermostat – a difference that perhaps hadn’t been communicated fully. The car is all-systems-go now and both cars made a spirited start to the event just after 8am.
Yes, that’s the SUHRT Car #1 on a trailer. And yes, it appears to be terminal. The first news I received about this was in a video that I posted earlier. There was an oil pressure problem and at that stage, with the car stuck on the side of the road, we were all hoping that the car would come in for repairs overnight and get underway again in the morning.
Apparently it’s a bigger issue than first throught, with the engine seized. The only hope is a possible engine transplant, with a donor engine from a car that has just been purchased with this transplant in mind. This will be in order to just finish the event, not in an attempt to be overly competitive.
The heartbreak of motorsport…..
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The good news is that the #2 car got through the first day, though not without incident.
Vladimir Antonov’s car was running hot for most of the day (a problem with a switch) and at one point, the car emptied itself of coolant. Fortunately, the guys managed to pull up near a swimming pool – I’m not kidding – they refilled the cooling system and made it back to Trollhattan.
Antonov is now working on a good night’s sleep in preparation for day 2 of the rally. He was really happy about today’s run, only running into real difficulty on stage 1 as the whole experience – including driving a 99T – was completely new to him. He managed to get great results in the rest of the stages completed today.
Tomorrow’s racing starts in Uddevela and I’ll bring you all the news as soon as it comes through to me.
Jorgen and our #2 car co-driver, Vladimir Antonov, have been in the news already this week.
The bad news is that Car #1 has had some problems show up on the first stage of the rally. Here’s the video.
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The good news is that I was told just half an hour ago by a local here in Trollhattan, where I’m writing from, that they must have got it fixed as both cars were going well in their regularity competitions.
Jörgen and Bo are pleased to announce that the Convers Group, a banking group run by Vladimir Antonov, the driver of SUHRT Car #2, have chosen to provide sponsorship for the Saabs United Historic Rally Team.
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Motor racing support is one of the main sponsorship interests of “Convers Group’’ and INVESTBANK. If we talk about Russia, “Convers Group’’ and INVESTBANK, apart from teenage karting sport, traditionally support popular events such as winter track races of Russia’s Championship in class N-1600, “Race of stars” “At the wheel”, “Race of Stars – the Cup of President RAF”, etc.
In the international arena, “Convers Group” is widely known as the sponsor of sports races since 2005, when a front team of “Convers Group”- Convers Team – including Alexey Vasilev, Nikolay Fomenko (Russia) and Kristof Bush (France) performed for the first time in class GT1 of Le Mans Endurance Series (LME). The main car of the team in their first season was Ferrari 550 Maranello, and in a race of Njurbugringe Aston Martin DBR9 joined them. Within a year the team participated in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Great Britain – and in every country they finished on a podium. At the final stage the team came out in the new line-up in Istanbul: Alexey Vasilev (Russia), Kristof Bush (France), Darren Turner (Great Britain).
In the following season of Le Mans Series-2006 our team performed under the Convers MenX Team brand in the following line-up: Alexey Vasilev (Russia), Robert Pergl (Czechia) and Peter Koks (Holland) and we won the second place in class GT1, having received the admission to participation in 2007 in one of the most significant events in the world of motor racing – “24 hours Le Mana”.
Since 2007 “Convers Group” has been seen in international arena in the “Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli – Europe” Championship, was represented by the team of the Lithuanian participant, holding company – Bankas Snoras – SNORAS Bank MenX Team (Alexey Vasilev and Robert Pergl). Thus in 2007 the best pilot of our team, Alexey Vasilev, took 8th place in Championship Ferrari Challenge and 8th place on Ferrari 550 GT1 in the 24 hours race of Le Mans, and in 2008 he took 9th place in Ferrari Challenge (Trofeo Pirelli) Championship, and 11th place in Le Mans Series on a sport car Spyker C8 Laviolette.
Since 2009 INVESTBANK together with “Russian Railway” have sponsored the participation of Russian team Ferrari Team Russia in Ferrari Challengе championship. In a season of European Ferrari Challenge-2010 championship Russian racers perform by two cars: Alexey Vasilev, the first pilot of the team, in offset Trofeo Pirelli with support of INVESTBANK and “Russian Railway”, and Alexandr Skryabin with the support of “Esta group”.
It seems like so long ago when this website was just in its infancy and the campaign to produce a Stig Blomqvist replica Saab 99 Turbo was still only a search for a suitable vehicle to get started with.
How far have we come since then?
Well, we found not just one car, but two, [...]
Car #2 came back from the paint shop only days before it was decorated with all of the appropriate stripes and decals, all ready for the race.
Here’s the video.
This is some great footage. Things are certainly progressing now as the rally gets closer.
The following video shows the build of the tanks, where they’ll be installed and there’s also a quick cameo of the painted #2 car.
As you’ve heard already, Vladimir Antonov will driving our #2 car in the Midnight Sun Rally.
Every driver needs a co-driver, however, and Vladimir’s co-driver for the event will be one of the most experienced co-pilots there is: French WRC co-driver, Denis Giraudet.
Here’s a little bit of background material on Denis’ career.
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Date of Birth : 16/12/55
Place [...]
The Midnight Sun rally is complete for 2010.
but both cars are running and will start the day looking to finish the event.
