This winter, Sweden’s Patrik Flodin was among the returnees in Sweden’s WRC event, including Gronholm, Bertelli, and Tuohino. This Swede I think will be remembered by those who followed the Production WRC Championship 2007-2011. Patrik has been faithfully driving Subaru Impreza all those years and almost twice won the PWRC Championship. In 2010, he was beaten by now well-known Hayden Paddon, and in 2011 – by Portuguese star Armindo Araujo. The Swede no longer took the title for the third time. In 2012, he traveled to famous European rallies with the Ford Fiesta S2000 and then landed in his native Sweden, where he drove the classic Volvo and BMW E30 models. The question was, did the Swede return to serious R5 technique only for the winter or will he continue to participate all year? East Sweden Rally had an answer.
Mr. Flodin answered this question by winning the Swedish Championship with the Škoda Fabia R5 from the MAX RPM team. By the way for the third time. 2006 Patrik won with Subaru Impreza in N4 class and last year with BMW M30 in T2WD class. And Patrik has another trophy on the shelf. In 2009, he became the champion of Russia. But winning this year was not easy in Sweden, because there is a lot of competition there. The main competitor also started active driving in Sweden only this year but has a lot of experience. And this is country star Johan Kristoffersson with the VW Polo GTI R5. He is a two-time World Rallycross Champion and now participates in the WTRC Race Championship. Other well-known Swedes, like Mattias Monelius or Marting Berglund, tried to interfere with their triggers.
The East Sweden rally became a milestone after which Patrik could celebrate knowing he had become a champion. The 110-kilometer battle in the forests of eastern Sweden was intense and ended with 4.4 seconds of Flodin’s victory over the rallycross star. That victory was enough to make the difference between the two athletes big enough in the final standings, and Johan wouldn’t even have a theoretical chance at the last event, at the end of September, where he finished second.
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Photo – Jonas Hermansson Photography
