Picture: Cor Yntema (grey shirt in the middle) and his codriver Henk Keitz (red shirt) showing the german teams his dutch Volvo 740 before start in swedish gravel rally Kullingstrofén. At the right you find german female driver Anja C Freese and between Cor and Anja is Stefanie Fritzenmeier, codriver in Holger Knöbels car. Among the germans You also find swedish driver Henrik Lever, ex-champion in the Nordic West Euro Cup who now has returned to the classe.
Holger Knöbel left his new Ford Escort Gr H back home in Germany and went to visit the Swedish leg of the Nordic West Euro Cup 2008 with his old 740. On the same trip was number 2 in the Cup so far - Jochen Walther and overall 9 drivers from Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands. On the starting line at Kullingstrofen in small Herrljunga there also was some swedish drivers - 76 teams, all used both to nordic gravel roads and pace notes... (In Swden drive true before start is not allowed. Instead everyone use pace notes (well - someones only use the roadbook even on the stages...) Among the sweeds of cause also was the Cup-leadet, Emil Tigerberg. Emil, Jochen and Holger started among the top grades drivers (Elite A - 23 cars). The rally had 6 special stages and all 3 drivers drowe very nice until SS3 where Jochen parked his 740 in a ditch for the rest of the rally. Emil and Holger went on - and ended at 9:e and 14.th place in Classe where the winner was 23 year old Nils Fransson from Vännäs, 1.000 kms (!) north of Herrljunga. Rest of the foreign drivers started in the C Classe (40 cars overall.) Winner in this classe was Nils´15 minutes older brother Emil Fransson - so the twin brothers from Vännäs vas very pleased with their day in the south of Sweden. (And some of the foreign drivers stopped talking about "the long way" to rallys in Sweden...) In C danish young driver Tom Fraas was one of the favorites, but Tim had problems with a hot engine (its was a sunny day with +30 C in the shadow ) and reach finish as nr 13 in classe, 1.02 min after the winner (it was really close between the drivers in all classes) Best om the new german drivers on gravel for the first time was Mathias Lewandowski on place 24. On place nr 26 in the classe we found 20 year old Cor Yntema from The Netherlands in his 740. Cor is fast on asphaft - and before start he was nr 3 overall in the Cup. And the points he got in Sweden plus the fact that Jochen Walther retired make him now as nr 2! Also Anja C Frese, dansih Erik Larsen and german Erik Karlsson came to finish line. But not Dr Gerd Sonntag who had problems with his brakes in the heat and had to retire. We have to say that 86 cars in the Volvo Classe (and 4 more in the special junior classe för drivers 16-18 years) not is normal in Sweden. Normaly there are 25-50 cars. But Kullingstrofen has became one of the most popular rallies among the Volvo Original and in this rally it normaly starts 80-90 Volvo original cars every year! Next round in the Cup is danish Rally Fyn last weekend in September. Its a two day long rally on asphalt with Supes Rally Rules as in the World Championship. Welcome to Denmark! Volvo Original Nordic Racing Cup after leg 5 (Kullingstrofén in Sweden): 1) Emil Tigerberg, Sweden, 940, 102 p, 2) Cor Yntema, The Nethlerlands,, 740, 63, 3) Jochen Walther, Germany, 740, 60, 4) John Boscha, The Netherlands, 240, 53, 5) Ruurd Ochse, The Netherlands, 240, 41, 6) Andreas Leue, Germany, 740, 32, 7) Nils Fransson, Sweden and Marius Haugerud, Norway, both 940, both 30, 9) Niklas Carlson, Sweden, 940, Siegfrid Mayr, Germany, 740, Roy Achterbosch, The Netherlands, 740 and Anja C Freese, Germany, 240, all 27 points each.