Category: News


During the last round of the World Rally Championship in New Zealand, things could have gone really bad for the Swedish duo Ramona Karlsson and Miriam Walfridsson. They were heading for their first medal of the PWRC, safe in second place amongst the contestants. Suddenly the car bursts into flames and the ladies has to throw themselves out of the burning vehicle while it’s still moving.  The car was long beyond rescue, and it burnt down right before their eyes. But the ladies are fine, and now they’re back.

Ever since Ramona and Miriam returned from New Zealand the team has been working day and night to make it to the next PWRC competition, this time in Germany. Their efforts hasn’t been in vain, and next week the ladies will be on the starting line again.

– We made up our minds that we would be back in time for Germany. Just a few weeks ago we had no car, and the entire situation was really upside-down. But thanks to our head mechanic Mikael Gustafsson and our sponsor Mitsubishi we were able to get a hold of a new car that Mikael has prepared for us, Ramona says.

It’s been a hard time and a lot of work to get all the pieces of the puzzle into place, and the team has experienced very intense days. – But when you really really want something, you can do it! Ramona says and continues: it’s nice to be able to breathe for a while now. There is more work that has to be done when we get home, in order to solve the rest of the practical and economic issues. But right now we are focusing on the pleasant fact that we are on our way to Germany and that we are going to participate in the rally competitions!

ADAC Rallye Deutschland will be Ramona’s and Miriam’s very first tarmac competition, and rumour has it that it will be a hard and decisive rally. Trier is the location for both start and finish, and the roads are all 100 % tarmac. Miriam says that this is going to be both fun and challenging, since these roads differ a whole lot from their usual gravel roads.

In New Zealand the ladies kept up a good speed, and was in second place before the fire. Miriam says that in ADAC Rallye Deutschland they will rather be safe than sorry – since tarmac roads are new to us, it’s hard to predict our chanses to compete with those who have more experience on these surfaces. We’ll just see how it goes, but of course we’re aiming at the top of the field, Miriam says.

Here’s the schedule for this week’s activities:

Monday: test
Tuesday – Wednesday: recce
Torsdag: shakedown
Friday: start

The rally starts Friday morning, and finishes on Sunday afternoon. At www.wrc.com there will be both webradio and live results, and www.ramonarallying.com will be updated before, during and after the rally.