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29/01/2010 11:00:00

Primat to make competitive rally debut in Sweden

Sports car racer Harold Primat will follow in the footsteps of Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica this weekend when he makes his competitive rally debut in a round of the Swedish-based SuperCup Championship.

The Aston Martin works driver, who finished fourth in the Le Mans Series and was a race winner in the Asian Le Mans Series driving the prestigious British marque’s LMP1 prototype last season, will take part in the Z-Trofén Rally in Northern Sweden. Primat will drive a Group N Subaru Impreza in the snow and ice event and will be co-driven by Staffan Parmander, who scored numerous WRC victories alongside Kenneth Eriksson in the 1990s.

The event will be Primat’s first competitive rally outing and comes after the Geneva-based driver spent last winter in Scandinavia with Parmander and rally star Patrick Sandell learning the intricacies of ice driving.

“It’s something I really enjoyed last winter and I wanted to take it to the next level by entering a proper rally,” Primat said. “I couldn’t wish for a better co-driver and coach than Staffan, who is so experienced and has had a lot of success at an international level.”

Primat and Parmander have spent the past few days testing the Subaru Impreza they will use on the event, and Harold, who is more used to competing in 650bhp prototype sports cars in gruelling endurance events, has been impressed with his new machine.

“It’s a proper car,” he said. “I got to test it this week and it has got a lot of power and feels really good to drive. Even though it is a 2006-spec Group N car, it’s only around a second per kilometre off the pace of a current WRC machine, which is still pretty quick!

“The technique between racing on the track and rallying on ice is very different. In circuit racing you can tolerate a certain amount of understeer, in fact it can be beneficial at some tracks, but on ice it is that last thing you want. Basically the car needs to be permanently sideways in the corners, which is a lot of fun.”

The SuperCup championship acts as a feeder category for the Swedish Rally Championship and the Z-Trofén event, held in the ski resort of Åre, is expected to attract a field of around 100 cars.

“The SuperCup is quite prestigious as it is just one level below the Swedish National Championship and the field is very strong for this event,” said Harold. “Obviously I am competitive and I want to do as well as possible, but it will be a learning event for me. Whatever happens I intend to enjoy every minute of it.”

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