The duo, who have won 27 World Championship rallies between them and claimed one driver’s title each, will take the wheel of identical 3.0-litre historic Porsches on the Swedish event, based in Vasteras from July 13-16.
The Midnight Sun Rally is one of Sweden’s most popular summer events, with fast and flowing stages that are a bit similar in places to the legendary Rally Finland.
Waldegard and Blomqvist, aged 67 and 63 respectively, will return to their home territory in 911s similar to those used on the Tuthill Porsche Challenge in Britain: the world’s only one-make rally championship for historic Porsches. The participation of the two rally legends on the Midnight sun Rally has been made possible by David Von Shinkel from Team Tido.
Alongside the two world champions’ cars, Tuthill Porsche is running another entry for local privateer Peter Andersson, who will once more be driving his own 911.
The Midnight Sun rally (which was the original name for Sweden’s round of the World Rally Championship) gets underway on Wednesday 13 July with an opening stage, followed by six more stages on Thursday and another six stages on Friday. The final day of the rally on Saturday 16 July contains five stages before the finish at 1545 back in Vasteras, close to Stockholm.
In total there are 170 kilometres of stages, which are all gravel with a few parts that are asphalted, and 1250 kilometres of road section.
Waldegard, who has driven on the Midnight Sun Rally every year since it became a historic event, commented: “I know Tuthill Porsche very well, so I know that I’m going to have a good car that will be a lot of fun to drive! There’s going to be a big fight against Stig – I’m sure he’s looking forward to that too, and I am sure he is busy practising – but also against a few other guys who are fast there too. It’s quite hard to explain in words the exact driving style that you need to go well in a Porsche on these roads, as it’s a car that you drive on instinct. But it’s actually very easy to have that instinct: a Porsche is a very nice car to drive with lots of traction and grip. It’s a car that is part of my own history in rallying.”
Waldegard will be co-driven by his son Matthias while Blomqvist’s co-driver is Robert Jakobsson. Andersson will be partnered by Stefan Andersson.
Tuthill Porsche director Richard Tuthill commented: “The Midnight Sun Rally is an absolutely stunning event and we’ve certainly got the drivers to do justice to it. We’re naturally very excited by having both Stig and Bjorn in our team: both are absolute legends and I’m sure they will each be anxious to prove a point on their home turf. The car they are using is essentially the same specification of car that we use for the Tuthilll Porsche Challenge in the UK, but with the addition of an FIA specification engine. Not only are these 911s fast but they’re also very easy to drive – as we hope that Stig and Bjorn are going to prove this weekend!”
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