Success up North

This is going to be a ramble, so excuse me if it sounds a bit thrown together.

What a weekend! Finally I have an overall rally win under my belt and I have to say the feeling is great, add on top of that a 17 point lead in the Icelandic championship going into Rally Reykjavik and things couldn't be better. After the Happiness rally I wasn't sure if I could afford to do the next rally so the final decision to take part wasn't taken until a week and a bit before the event. At that time 'Heimir', my previous co-driver had already decided to compete with 'Baldur Hlöðversson' for what remained of the season. I guess second place wasn't good enough for him, can't blame him though I would have wanted the win just as much.

In his place came my dads old co-driver, 'Björgvin Benediktsson', again at the last minute. I am very lucky to have found someone willing to hop in the car with me yet again with short notice let alone in the same rally I had rolled in last year, and fog was expected.

We made our way to 'Sauðárkrókur' the day before the race to do our recce which went over very quickly since we only had to recce 2 stages both ways. We tented out for the night and I got some very important sleep for the race starting early the next morning.

Race day and we were poised and ready for battle, we arrived on the opening stage of the day and there was very thick fog at the start of stage 1 'Mælifellsdalur'. All the crews were on their toes and I think everyone had a pretty conservative drive up the first stage. The fog was extremely thick down in the valley but at the midway point the stage had climbed above the fog and the visibility became better. We had a good run through the stage and were lying in third at the end of it.

This stage was driven 3 more times and all of our runs were without a problem always posting quick and consistent times, the fog never cleared on the lower part of the stage and with 'Björgvin' having not competed for years and me trying to set stage winning times it wasn't very easy for him, but he pulled trough and got me to the end of the rally unscathed. going into stage 5 'Vesturdalur'. we had a 30 or so second lead, our rivals had had troubles, some pushed the limits too far and had broken their cars including my 'Heimir' and 'Baldur' who rolled their car on the second stage, but thankfully they were both unharmed.

The remaining kms of the rally were driven with victory in mind, we already had a good lead on our competitors and all we had to do is manage the gap. At the end me and 'Björgvin' managed to take victory in the third round of the championship.

I want to give a huge thanks to everyone in the team. The service boys did a fantastic job getting the car ready and fixing it on the race day, it might have not been a rough and tough kind of event on our part but in rallying there is always something that comes up, but like a fly on the wall it was quickly swatted away. Big thanks to may sponsor POULSEN and of course everyone else who made this victory possible, rally is a team effort and I can't take sole responsibility for this result.

Next up it's Rally Reykjavík and since my dad offered to lend me his Evo if I won the event (as a joke) I think all try to make him do good on that promise.

See you in Rally Reykjavík!