1998 Swedish Rally Explained

1998 Safari Rally
Native Name:47. International Swedish Rally 1998
Round:2 of 13
Championship:1998 World Rally Championship
Previous Round:1998 Monte Carlo Rally
Next Round:1998 Safari Rally
Rallybase: Karlstad
Startdate:6
Enddate:8 February 1998
Stages:19
Driver1: Tommi Mäkinen
Team1:Team Mitsubishi Ralliart
Teamsstart:78[1]
Teamsfinish:42

The 47th International Swedish Rally was held between 6-8 February 1998.

Report

WRC: Round 2

It was the first World Rally Championship victory of the season for defending champion Tommi Mäkinen. He beat the Toyota Corolla of Carlos Sainz and the Ford Escort WRC of Juha Kankkunen, ensuring that current and former World Rally Champions swept the podium. The home driver Thomas Rådström led for most of the event, but crashed on stage 12, allowing Mäkinen to snatch victory. The Scotsman Colin McRae also went out on stage 12, when electrical gremlins struck his Subaru Impreza WRC.

PWRC: Round 2

The PWRC was also won by Stig-Olov Walfridson. He and fellow Swede Kenneth Bäcklund were the main contenders for overall victory; whilst the Uruguayan defending champion Gustavo Trelles came to grief once again, after being struck by a terminal engine failure on Special Stage 2 which meant he had retired from the second rally in a row. Finishing in third place was Juha Kangas.

Results

Results of the 1998 Swedish Rally
PosNo.DriverCo-driverCarTime/retiredPts
11 Tommi Mäkinen Risto MannisenmäkiMitsubishi Lancer Evo IV3:32:51.610
25 Carlos Sainz Luis MoyaToyota Corolla WRC+51.66
37 Juha Kankkunen Juha RepoFord Escort WRC+58.84
44 Kenneth Eriksson Staffan ParmanderSubaru Impreza S3 WRC '97+2:31.73
511 Marcus Grönholm Timo RautiainenToyota Celica GT-Four+3:29.92
69 Didier Auriol Denis GiraudetToyota Corolla WRC+4:18.21

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Tomáš Shacki Wanka . International Swedish Rally 1998 . eWRC-results.com . 2015-10-05.