Like a loveable pirate combing the Mediterranean in search of treasure, Andreas Mikkelsen is island hopping in pursuit of rally championship points. Last weekend he was in Sardinia, contesting a round of the Italian Gravel Championship, and this weekend he’ll return to the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) for Round 3, theTour de Corse-E.Leclerc, in his Škoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000.
The first back-to-back rally event saw Andreas contest theRally della Costa Smeralda (which ran on the back of Italy’s FIA World Rally Championship round, the Rally d’Italia Sardegna, and covered seven identical stages) in a Škoda Rally Team Italia Fabia S2000. He was leading when, on SS4, an unavoidable impact with the rough gravel road damaged the underneath of the engine and forced him into retirement.
Andreas will have a different Škoda Fabia S2000 for this weekend’s all-asphalt Tour de Corse, which is an event steeped in rally history and famous for its challenging narrow, twisty and abrasive roads. Corsica is a picturesque island the 21-year old FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy driver is familiar with, having contested the Tour de Corse in 2007 and ’08. It’s also just 10 weeks since Andreas won the Bastia-based Ronde De La Giraglia, which Škoda UK Motorsport did as a test. However, none of this weekend’s stages are identical to anything Andeas has rallied on in Corsica before.
Andreas finished 6th on the previous round of the IRC, the Rally Islas Canarias Trofeo El Corte Inglés, and a similar strategy of trying to achieve a trouble-free points scoring finish will be employed in Corsica this weekend.
It’s not only Andreas who has been driving well recently, as his skills have clearly been of great inspiration to his co-driver, Ola Fløene, who recently enjoyed outstanding success behind the steering wheel himself. Against 137 competitors in near-identical stock cars, Ola came out on top at a major rallycross event in Dokka, a village in the Oppland county of Norway, winning the grand A-Final despite afive metre penalty for jumping the initial start!
Andreas: “I really like rallying on Corsica, and even though this will be my fourth visit I don’t think I have done any of the stages before, so it will be like a new rally for me. Both Tour de Corse events I did in 2007 and ’08 only took place on a small part of the island and the Ronde De La Giraglia was as far north as you can go, so it will be nice to rally on parts of the island I’ve never been to before.
“Corsica is more technical and difficult than the stages on Gran Canarias. The level of grip changes a lot and the roads are a lot more narrow and twisty. It’s going to be a very tough event for everybody, but the Škoda will be good there and we’ll be aiming to finish in the points once again.”
As always on an IRC event, the Tour de Corse has received a high quality entry, with top teams and drivers aiming for success. Amongst them will be a total of six Škoda Fabia S2000s, driven by Andreas, Jan Kopecký (Škoda Motorsport), Freddy Loix (BFO Škoda Rally Team), Toni Gardemeister (TGS World Wide), Patrik Sandell (Škoda Sweden) and the privately-entered car of Jean-François Succi.
The Tour de Corse breaks with recent rally tradition by having three different service areas in three days. The event begins in Calvi at 13.00 on Thursday 12 May, and the shortest day of the rally contains just one 17.1 mile (27.53km) stage, albeit the longest of the event, which is tackled twice. Two very long days follow, beginning when crews leave Calvi at 07.00 on Friday 13 May and wind their way south, via six stages (totaling 78.73 miles/126.7kms) and service in Corte, to the overnight halt in Ajaccio, where they arrive almost 14 hours later at 20.45. The third and final day on Saturday 14 May starts at 08.15 and sees three long stages which are tackled twice. After another 86.02 miles (138.44km) of competition and more than 13 hours on the move, the event finishes in Ajaccio at 21.30.
