1981: First WRC win for four-wheel drive

The 30-year Swedish domination of this, the only true winter rally left in the World Championship, was totally broken, the two David Sutton Cars-prepared Rothmans Escorts of two more Finns, Ari Vatanen and Pentti Airikkala taking second and third places.

Last year's winner, Anders Kullang, was unable to match the speed of the two Escorts, a major factor being his tyres. The Finns have discovered the magic ingredient 'Timi tyres' which were just that much quicker than the long-favoured Hekenius tyres, which Anders was still running on the Publimmo-entered factory Opel Ascona 400.

The Swedish Rally still waits to be reinstated to full World Championship status, and the fact that this year's 31st running of the event did not count towards the 'Makes' title dissuaded many manufacturers from entering.

The start had been moved back to the heart of Varmland, Karlstad. The 1980 winner led the 116 starters away from the centre of the town at midday on the Friday, Anders Kullang heading a team of no Jess than five different makes of car, all under the Publimmo-Venere banner.

The Monte Carlo-based Publimmo company have combined with the Italian Venere construction company to form what must rate as the biggest 'private' team in rallying at the moment. Some of their cars were factory supported, such as Kullang's Ascona and Stig Blomqvist's Saab 99 Turbo, but the Porsche 91 ISC of Per Eklund was his own car - used a few years ago in 'Happy People' colours on the 1000 Lakes and Hankkiralli - and Ingvar Carlsson's BMW 323i and Bror Danielsson's Escort were also privately run.

Second starter was the car that everyone feared, the Audi Quattro of Hannu Mikkola. It had already showed its potential on snow, winning in the Janner Rally, and even the Rothmans team were quite convinced that, if the Ouattro ran with no problems, it would be impossible to beat.

Sadly among the list of non-starters was the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus of young Finn Henri Toivonven, unavailability of certain parts forcing Henri to withdraw. So, too, did Norwegian John Haugland who, it seems, was unable to raise the funds to run his Skoda, while Leif Asterhag - having lost his sponsor over a dispute regarding his rallying in South Africa - was also a non-starter in his Toyota.




In an effort to reduce the ever-increasing expense to competitors of studded tyres, the route was changed considerably from that used in previous years, only part of one stage being used more than once. This reduced the mileage to be run on stages where the studs would have cut through to the gravel, when studs begin to get ripped out of the tyres.

This also gave the opportunity of using the river stage at Stollet, which was last used about 10 years ago: planned as a l0kms test, this was eventually shortened when the snow plough driven by rallycross driver Arne Allanson cracked through the ice, leaving the eight tons of plough semi-submerged. Ice soon formed around the machine and it was eventually necessary to use dynamite to free the plough.

The rally was divided into three separate legs, all starting and finishing in Karlstad and each having a short halt at about half distance. The first part (421 kms) went as far north as Hagfors before returning via Rottneros, where there was a 45mins halt, back to Karlstad. The event restarted at the uncivilised hour of 7.00am on Saturday, this second loop progressing even further north to the stage and halt at Stollet before returning to base. After a further 5hrs halt, the final shorter leg passed to the west of Karlstad.




As predicted, Mikkola was fastest on the 10.4kms first stage, with Stig Blomqvist and Ari Vatanen sharing equal second, just 6secs behind the Audi; on stage 2, it was Mikkola again with, Vatanen and Bjorn Johansson this time sharing second, 13secs behind. Already out of the running was the Team Clarion Saab 99 Turbo of Erik Johansson, the car quite badly damaged in a road accident. Out, too, was the white Porsche 91 ISC of Lasse Jonsson, which had been showing signs of trouble on the first stage, and stopped with gearbox failure on the second.

Mikkola repeated the performance on the following two stages, before the first really long stage, 22kms of the famous Grasmark stage, this the last before the short halt. Blomqvist was quickest here in his borrowed Saab 99 Turbo, with the three Finns - Mikkola, Vatanen and Pentti Airikkala - all making exactly the same time, 9secs slower than Stig.

Positions at the halt were:
1, Mikkola, 44m39s; 2, Vatanen and Blomqvist, 45m16s; 4, Airikkala, 45m30s; 5, Kallang, 45m53s; 6, Stromberg, 46m 00s.

Just two more stages had to be completed before returning to Karlstad for a night's rest, but the first of these was another 21 kms tage. This time Vatanen was quickest in the Rothmans Escort, the Rothmans lettering covered over to comply with Swedish law. Second 5 secs behind, was Kullang who, despite not having the very best tyres was putting up a brave performance.

All the drivers in front of him were running the new Timi tyres, produced by a small company in Finland. Like the Helenius tyres, they are of a remould design, their main advantage over the Helenius tyre - now made by Nokia - being a slightly harder compound which retains the studs for a longer period. Poor Bror Danielsson, despite a contract with Timi, was at a distinct disadvantage, as his 15ins wheel had failed to materialise and he was forced to run his Escort on 13ins rims.

Just the short 8.6kms stage on the skirts of Karlstad remained before the rest halt, but this was enough to lose Blomqvist his third place, when faulty fuel-injection cost him 30secs. This let Airikkala up to third, Per Eklund at the same time having passed the Ascona of Johansson to lie sixth behind Stromberg. As a precaution, the Sutton mechanics decided to change the gearbox on Vatanen's car, but he dropped no road penalties, so still held onto second, 32secs behind Mikkola.

The Saturday, restart was before sun-rise, and there had been a light sprinkling of snow overnight, a welcome sight as some of the more southern stages were worn through to the gravel after practising. Vatanen was obviously wide awake, as he made a determined effort to catch Hannu: after he had taken a total of 9secs off Mikkola in two stages, however, Hannu replied by taking 26secs back on the third.

It was then obvious that, unless the Audi struck problems, the Escort driver was never going to be able to overtake the flying Mikkola. By 1.00pm, the leading drivers had reached the river stage and halt among the massive traffic jams at the small town of Stollet, where the weekend skiing traffic mixed with the rally to cause minor chaos. Not among the chaos, however, was the Saab 99 Turbo of Kalle Grundel, out of the rally two stages earlier with Turbo problems; on the river itself Jan Hagman blew the engine of his Escort.

At the halt, Mikkola now led by just over l min from Vatanen, but Blomqvist was back up to third, having passed Airikkala, whose Escort was not on full song, the fault eventually traced to a duff distributor, which was then changed. Publimmo team-mate Per Eklund had also moved up a place, taking sixth from Ola Stromberg.

Now came the hardest part of the rally with five longer stages leading back to Karlstad. It was beginning to get dark again and the Audi continued its winning way as it scorched through the night, the Turbo burning bright as Hannu accelerated up through the gears, a sudden back-fire almost blasting spectators off their perch on a snow bank.

Danielsson noticed something wrong with the diff and eased off 4kms from the finish. The car ground to a halt, however, just 400m from the end of the stage with the pinion stripped, but the ever-popular Swede was almost carried over the line by supporters. Sadly this was to no avail, as it was impossible to repair the car in time to stay in the rally, costing him eighth place. Eklund was in trouble on the same stage, the tread having stripped off one of his tyres, the wheel taking 2 1/2mins to change, dropping him from sixth to 10th. Soren Nilsson also dropped two places as he too lost time with a puncture on the same stage.

The following stage - another 17kms thrash - saw the end of Blomqvist's hopes of catching Vatanen when, driving sideways with the rear of the car in a ditch, the rear wheel was ripped off on a rock. He was able to limp to the end of the stage but, although he lost only 2mins, he slipped down three places to sixth. Ingvar Carlsson damaged a link-arm on the rear-suspension of his BMW on the same stage and, although he managed to drive as far as the halt, he decided to retire as the car was not in a safe condition. The final stage before the halt saw Kyosti Hamalainen invert his G2 Escort and, although the car was still driveable, he too decided to call it a day.

With the final leg to go the positions were: 1, Mikkola, 2h43m23s; 2, Vatanen, 2h45m04s; 3, Airikkala, 2h47m07s; 4, Kullang, 2h47m17s; 5, Johansson, 2h48m13s; 6, Blomqvist, 2h48m38s.

The final leg, as always, was the real sting in the tail, the 48kms longest stage of the rally. It was here that Pentti Airikkala proved that a new distributor was all that his car had needed, immediately setting fastest time. Blomqvist, too was flying, soon making up the 25secs deficit on Johansson to snatch fifth while fellow Saab driver Ola Stromberg was not so lucky, breaking a drive-shaft coupling on the long stage.