Sweden 2008

- - - Sweden Rally 2008 - - -



Ah, nothing cheers me up more than some rally racing; which is probably a good thing as this is Single Awareness Day (SAD); more later in this post how I balance out my evil contempt for this day, this year.

There's little bits in rally that make it special. For the Sweden rally, one is the fact that since this race has been run, every year since 1950, only once has it been won by a non-Scandinavian (Loeb in 2004).

I mean, could you imagine if the Indianapolis 500 had been won 99% of the time by someone from Indiana? That's unfathomable I know, but that's what makes Rally so unique. These courses and conditions change so much from race to race that someone born into the conditions actually has a huge advantage (either that, or Scandinavians make amazing Rally drivers (they do)).

Regardless I think its brilliant that a group of the best drivers in the world can get together in a place, and the "home town guy" has won 57 out of 58 times.



This years Sweden rally was marred a little by by global warming. At least that's what people will say; it could just be unseasonably warm and next year we'll have our 4 foot snowbanks again. I was very interested to see if the lack of huge amounts of snow was going to cut into that home field advantage for the flying fins / crazy swedes / nutty nordics.

Here's the Torrent Links:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Again, if those confuse you or if you have any other questions about them, go read the Monte Carlo Post



Oh, so I mentioned above I might be a bit more cynical this V.Day than most (hmm, I wonder why?). At least I know that, so I did my best to balance out my discontent. My I left a gift card at the Starbucks I normally hit in the mornings to buy as many ladies following behind me drinks as it could. Hopefully their day will be made; and the world will stay in balance. =)

Either way, concentrate on the flying Subarus. They are way more interesting.