Let it snow, let it snow

Watching the world’s fastest rally cars dancing on ice is a seasonal spectacle not to be missed. But last Friday, just getting to one of the well organised spectator areas on the Umeå-based event, one felt like an explorer setting out for one of the Poles at the north or south of planet earth. At times, we were wading through knee-deep powder, but it was worth it. One begun to understand why this rally has specific snow mobile parking areas.

With the fires lit and the sausages cooking nicely, the big show arrived. And didn’t disappoint. There’s something truly magical about watching a rally car balanced on a 160kph knife-edge, with a front corner nibbling at the inside snowbank while the diagonally opposing rear corner leans on the outside bank, firing a rooster trail of snow dust into the sky. It was awesome.

As was everything about last week’s Rally Sweden. The atmosphere in The Red Barn Arena was just sensational, precisely the rallying winter wonderland we needed.

Before watching rally cars fly across the finish line, you could talk tractors, enjoy a local beverage or two by another fire and then browse the wide variety of woolly hats on offer.

We saw both sides of the winter conditions last week, with heavy snow giving way to some of the most beautiful blue skies on the weekend. Through it all, Esapekka Lappi, Janne Ferm and their colleagues put on an unforgettable display of what can be done in a rally car. Whatever the weather.