Henriksson Drives PPIK Fiesta ST to success on Swansea Bay Rally

M-Sport’s International Shoot Out Winner, Victor Henriksson made the most of his pairing with current Junior World Rally Champion Co-driver Emil Axelsson on his first UK outing on the Swansea Bay National Rally at the weekend.

Victor’s day got off to a bad start. With his car’s suspension set too low for the rough Welsh conditions, he emerged from Special Stage 1 Margam Park minus his rear bumper. “I’ve never seen such rough and slippery conditions in Sweden”, commented Victor laconically.

Midway through SS2, Victor experienced front suspension failure. The problem cost him as much as a minute as the pace was slackened to make sure the car returned to service, where the PPIK service crew fitted new front shock absorbers as well as adjusting the Fiesta’s ride height.

With the revised suspension set up, Victor was able to adapt his driving to unfamiliar Welsh conditions. He immediately went on to set 17th fastest time on SS4 making the PPIK Fiesta the quickest two-wheel-drive car in the rally. Despite the further frustration of losing power steering during final stage, Victors UK rally debut resulted in a class victory. More impressive is the fact that the Fiesta finished as fastest two-wheel-drive car in 21st position overall.

David Dobson Director PPIK was full of praise for his driver. “Victor has achieved all we set him to this weekend. Emil has told me how impressed he was with Victor’s ability to adapt all that Wales threw at him. Victor was told to finish the rally to gain as much experience of the nature of the stages as possible. The result exceeded our expectations and at just 19 years of age, he has a great future ahead of him.  We will now try to find the budget to support him on future events; it would be great to see him over the same stages as a competitor along side the best in the world when the WRC comes to South Wales at the end of the year”.

Henriksson concludes. “It was a very difficult weekend for us. We were on the motorway for over 12 hours in the floods on Friday and we did not think we would make the rally. It has not been a perfect rally for me but I am happy with my result. Emil taught me a lot about stages in this country and I would like to try some more if I can do this. My service crew took the ferry from Hull on Sunday to get the car back to prepare it for my next rally this weekend in Sweden. They came a long way but it was worth it.”

To see more of Victor’s exploits click here.