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Now it’s done. Patrik Sandell and his co-driver Emil Axelsson are the new Junior World Rally Champions. However, the race was gratuitously dramatic and the final result was uncertain up until the very end.
Patrik lay second at the start of the last day of the Junior World Championship Rally in Wales. He needed to keep this position in order to be Champion. When the leader Mölder got a flat tire, Patrik took over the lead and it looked as if he was going to race past the finishing line as the new World Champion.
Then the unforeseen happened…
‘The back of the car went and skidded in the wrong direction in a turn. I thought I had made it, when I noticed that we had started to slide down a slope and the car ended up on the roof,’ tells Patrik Sandell, who was left standing by the side of the road watching the other drivers go by.
After some calculations at the side of the road, Patrik and Emil realised that it was not all ‘doom and gloom’. If they could tow the car and get it to Parc Fermé in Cardiff before 18.45 pm they would come fifth. This would give them valuable points and they would end up with the same total score as the Estonian Urmo Aava. In the end, the Swedish duo won the total World Championship due to the fact that they had more second place positions during the season.
Instead of lamenting over a gold medal lost, the team’s Renault Clio was towed and Patrik and Emil got a lift into Cardriff. They arrived 18.00 pm, 45 minutes before the deadline. Maybe it wasn’t the victory parade that they had planned but they did arrive as World Champions.
‘We have been thrown between hope and despair this afternoon. But now when it is clear, it feels fantastic! A great final to an equally great season,’ cheers Patrik Sandell before he disappears for the prize ceremony.
Then the unforeseen happened…
‘The back of the car went and skidded in the wrong direction in a turn. I thought I had made it, when I noticed that we had started to slide down a slope and the car ended up on the roof,’ tells Patrik Sandell, who was left standing by the side of the road watching the other drivers go by.
After some calculations at the side of the road, Patrik and Emil realised that it was not all ‘doom and gloom’. If they could tow the car and get it to Parc Fermé in Cardiff before 18.45 pm they would come fifth. This would give them valuable points and they would end up with the same total score as the Estonian Urmo Aava. In the end, the Swedish duo won the total World Championship due to the fact that they had more second place positions during the season.
Instead of lamenting over a gold medal lost, the team’s Renault Clio was towed and Patrik and Emil got a lift into Cardriff. They arrived 18.00 pm, 45 minutes before the deadline. Maybe it wasn’t the victory parade that they had planned but they did arrive as World Champions.
‘We have been thrown between hope and despair this afternoon. But now when it is clear, it feels fantastic! A great final to an equally great season,’ cheers Patrik Sandell before he disappears for the prize ceremony.
“Tillsammans kan vi nu skapa en framtid för svensk rallysport, som företag eller privatperson kan ni nu bli medlem i Sweden World Rally Team och bidra till att skapa nästa Svenska Världsmästare i rally efter mig”
Stig Blomqvist, WORLD RALLY CHAMPION 1984
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