(This guide to the Swedish Rally will be in the game-post for Week Four, but is included here in case you want to get your entry in sooner. If so, I suggest putting your selection in the comments for Week Three.)
The Swedish Rally is the second of the two winter WRC events this year. The surface is snow-and-ice covered gravel. Only once in its history has a non-Scandinavian driver won (Loeb in 2004). In 1990, it was cancelled because of mild weather, and in 2005 many stages turned to mud-and-slush unsuitable for the studded tyres used for the event.
Providing the weather is suitably wintery, the event sees drivers often skimming the rear-end of the car on snow-banks when coming out of corners. The danger is they use the wrong snow-bank too aggressively and hit a rock (or maybe find a ditch) they did not know was there. Another feature is after a spin or off, the crew have to sometimes stop on the stage to get out and remove snow from the front-intakes to avoid the engine overheating.
Looking back at recent snow events, it tends to be much the usual names towards the front, but not in quite the usual order. Do have a look at the last three snow-results (two from Sweden and one from Norway), and I think quite a lot of us may be picking much the same drivers. It is difficult to know how the Mini Cooper will do, as it has mostly only shown its form on tarmac (but which Sordo is at his best on), last season and at the Monte Carlo with the lack of snow this year. Previous winners in Sweden are Hirvonen, Latvala, Loeb and Petter Solberg.
I do recommend trying to avoid a bad result rather than trying to create a good one, as consistency is the key to this game.
