What does it take to win on Sweden’s famous snow stages?

Ireland has once again pitched its fair share of competitors into World Rally Championship action, this time on the famous sub-zero stages of Rally Sweden.

Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy move onto their second event aboard M-Sport’s Ford Puma Rally1. After overcoming the perils of Rally Monte-Carlo’s mix of dry, ice, and snow road conditions, the Rally1 rookies now face the high-speed winter tests around Umea.

The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy is also represented by Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan who kickstart their third Junior WRC campaign in Sweden. The Donegal-Monaghan crew finished third 12 months ago and with a couple of warm-up snow rallies in the bag, Kelly will be eyeing up a strong start to the five-round series.

But what does it take to win on such a foreign surface? How do you make the most of WRC’s unique studded tyres? Who better to ask than Rally Sweden Junior WRC winners William Creighton and Jon Armstrong. They beat stiff opposition to claim the winter rally crown in 2022 and 2023.

“You have to have a lot of confidence in the car,” started 2023 Junior World Champion Creighton. “You need confidence to turn into high-speed corners, carry drifts, and keep your corner speed high.

“It feels unique to be driving on snow but as you get to grips with it, it becomes like driving on gravel.

“The biggest difference with the car is the narrower tyres with seven mm studs, about 250 or 300 studs in each tyre. That is what gives you the grip. If the studs are in good condition, you can have a good grip on the compact snow or ice base.

“Rally Sweden’s stages are so fast with a lot of big straights and high-speed corners. In the past, for me, it was important to have quite a reactive car with a positive front end so that when you turn it in fifth gear you have a lot of precision there.”

Armstrong came out on top of an epic duel with Finland’s Lauri Joona one year before Creighton’s success. The Fermanagh native reflected on what he reckons is his most satisfying victory to date.

“It is like the ultimate playground for a rally driver,” said Armstrong. “There isn’t much risk of having a huge accident as you scuttle through the snowbanks.

“Nine times out of ten if you go over the edge, worst-case you get stuck in a snowbank. So you kind of push beyond where you normally would.

“One thing that can go unnoticed is the prep-work needed between stages. You are constantly rotating tyres and checking the studs so that you balance out the wear rate between the different tyres. When the studs get loose you lose the precision in the tyre.

“Another thing is scraping out the snow that gathers in the wheel arches. Between every stage where we had time to do it, we were taking all four wheels off the car and scraping the build-up of ice. That was hard work because of the freezing conditions, everything you went to touch was so cold.”

The ultra-fast nature of the Umea-based Rally Sweden provides another unique opportunity to the competing crews. More straights mean fewer corners so the chance to check pacenotes from the previous loop of stages increases.

“We review our pacenotes on every rally,” admitted Armstrong, “but because of Rally Sweden’s nature, you can go through each stage in detail. You are trying to pin down where you can go faster before you tackle the stages again.”

Both Armstrong and Creighton pointed towards the surprising amount of grip available on ice, thanks to the studded tyres. Creighton, who has just announced a British Rally Championship campaign in a Toyota Yaris Rally2, added one caveat though:

“ There is a conception that you always run the car a bit softer on a winter rally compared to a gravel rally but if you have a hard ice base then quickly your set-up can become quite close to a standard gravel event.

“The most tricky thing with a winter rally is if you have a fresh dump of snow during a stage or when you go into the stage.

“The tyre works amazingly well on a hard base but whenever you have that fresh powder there is absolutely no grip and it gets difficult then. That is definitely something to watch out for.”

Rally Sweden’s 18 stages get underway on Thursday with Irish co-drivers Aaron Johnston and James Fulton also competing alongside Takamoto Katsuta and Yuki Yamamoto.

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Photos courtesy of M-Sport