Sweden’s round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes place this week and, for the third time in succession, the Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge will form part of the country’s biggest motorsport event.
This year’s Rally Sweden is not included in the Swedish Rally Championship and that means that Evo Challenge competitors have to enter the full WRC event, as there is no option of a shorter and less expensive national status rally to choose from. Therefore, to give its competitors an incentive to enter, organisers of the one-make series for Group N Mitsubishi Lancers have split the event into two rounds: one from stages 1–14 and the second from stages 15–24.
The significant increase in costs for having to contest the whole of round two of the World Rally Championship has led to Evo Challenge teams being offering a further incentive of 10,000 SEK towards their entry costs. This contribution to expenses is being provided by Mitsubishi Motors Sweden who is using the rally as a major corporate hospitality opportunity for its dealers and guests.
With Evolution Challenge competitors able to drop scores from three of the season’s five rounds, many of the 14 registered crews have opted not to enter Rally Sweden. In fact, only one that contested the first round in Uppsala – which took place on 27/28 January – is taking part this weekend: Hans-Erik Weng and co-driver Stefan Ohlson.
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