Sweden : Aimont Racing - PreviewGigi Galli and Aimont Racing Team ready to start their adventure together in the 2007 FIA World Rally championship Rally Sweden, second round of the championship, is going to be “Gigi” Galli's debut on a Citroen Xsara WRC, prepared by PH
Sport France and run during the championship by the renewed Aimont Racing Team and for these two races will use Pirelli tyres. Citroen France assigned to the Italian team the Engineer Emily Le Fur for this race.
Rally Sweden is the first of two close rounds in Scandinavia and its characteristics are snow and ice, tough conditions that will put a strain on drivers and cars. Temperatures can go down to – 30° C, determination is essential also for the mechanics of the team that will work in the snow in very difficult conditions.
Last year the Italian driver from Livigno and his co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini arrived 4th overall, fighting hard with their rivals on the treacherous and snowy roads of this spectacular rally.
“I'm very happy we've achieved this agreement with Aimont Raging Team," said Gigi. “Citroen Xsara is a new car to me, for instance the balancing is different from the one I have been used to and it has a 6 speeds gearbox that I have never used before. I tested it shortly in January in order to start knowing it. I know Rally Sweden and I gain experience in the past with WRC and also with the snow, so now we have to capitalize on this and find the right feeling with the car."
Tuesday afternoon Gigi tested the Citroen Xsara near Karlstad to find the best race set up and is quite satisfied with it. As usual Gigi Galli will have his lucky number 25.
All the three legs are grouped around the single service park located at Hagfors, approximately 80 km north from Karlstad. Some of the special stages have been changed a bit, but most of them are the same as last year. The only completely new test is the 1.9 km long Super Special Stage in Karlstad that will open the rally tonight at 20.00 hrs and will close it next Sunday afternoon. The snow arrived at the end of January in Sweden and now the tests are in good conditions and there should be also the frozen snow banks lining the forest tracks that will allow drivers to “lean” their cars against it and not lose speed in the bends.
In these days a light snow kept falling and the temperatures are around – 10°C. This morning during the six laps of the Shakedown, Gigi tried two different types of Pirelli tyres. The first one was with 8 mm studs, suitable for ice and the second one with 7 mm studs, suitable for snow covered ground. In this case he felt more comfortable with the second type. Gigi galli and Giovanni Bernacchini decided to adopt a conservative driving during the first leg in order to get experience with the new car.
Drivers are now ready to tackle the 1733 km of the race divided in 20 special stages (343 km).
