This weekend it was time for the first Swedish Rally Championship competition; a snow rally in Sandviken. Ramona and Miriam have taken the big step from a Gr.N car into a WRC, and haven’t got many kilometres in the car yet. Therefore Ramona Rallying had planned some test before the competition to get more experience in the car, but unluckily the the test roads melted away because of the mild weather. Therefore the girls had to set up a moderate goal for the competition, which was to increase the speed during the rally and try to look at it as a good practise. And the plan worked good. They started carefully, an increased the speed every stage – despite from a visit in a snow bank. ”That stage I was determinded of increasing my speed in the fast corners. Which we did. But in one corner at end of the stage, we were a bit too positive in our pace notes and we went to fast into the curve” Ramona says. But the girls did not give up. They lost many minutes during their snow shoveling, but came up on the road again and continued the rally. But because of the snow bank visit they also dropped several placements, and finally reached the goal in 9th place. ”Not a placement that we are satisfied with at all, but still we got some Championship points. However, we really feel that we have made a positive development in the car, which looks good for the future. This was valuable kilometres for us! Last stages we had better attack and speed and that’s the way you need to drive this car to be able to use its capacity. Determinded and with attack!” Ramona says. Ramona and Miriam were approximately 0,8 seconds per kilometre from top three stage times, and they are aware of where they loose the time. ”I need to practice on my braking points. The Skoda is much lighter than the Gr.N car i drove before, and I can brake much later.” Ramona says. Next competition is Swedish Championships in Östersund February 22:nd- 23:rd, and the team plans a big test before the competition. ”Technically the car now worked great. We had some small issues with the car in the beginning, but thanks to a visit from Patrick Gerritsen from Wevers in Holland, and great support from our responsible mechanic Mikael Gustafsson, the car now works perfect. I look forward to more kilometres in the car, and to increase our speed!” Ramona says.
