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A successful Scandic learning curve for Simon
Following on from rallies in Hungary, England and Portugal, Simon Jean-Joseph and Jack Boyere’s fourth engagement of the year with the C2-R2 MAX took place in Sweden. Throughout the South Swedish Rally, the Citroen crew took advantage of the excellent work from the PH-Sport team and the efficiency of their BFGoodrich tyres in order to showcase the qualities and potential of Citroen’s latest product by winning the R2 category, as well as the A6 class.Run over two days, the ‘South Swedish Rally’ – a key event in the Swedish Rally Championship – featured an extremely compact route. Just over 164 competitive kilometres were in store, around the town of Ljugnby. In total, there were 14 special stages (six on Friday and eight on Saturday) run in a cloverleaf format on fast and flowing gravel roads.
At the end of the first day, Simon’s priority was to get his bearings on what was very specialised terrain. « It’s like nothing I’ve quite experienced before, » said the 2007 European Champion. « I needed a few kilometres in order to find the right pace. We also tried a few different set-ups. The C2-R2 MAX always met our expectations, reacting well to all the set-up changes we made – even if we were not always going in the right direction with them. This day of learning will be extremely useful to us during leg two. »
The man from Martinique was exactly right. During the second day, the times from the Citroen crew just kept on getting better – to the point where they were challenging even the local specialists. Simon and Jack finished 16th overall in the end, having thoroughly enjoyed the rally. « Once more, I had great fun getting to know a new country, a new rally and different types of stages, » said Simon after the finish. « On such specialised Scandinavian roads, it’s always hard to go quickly straight away. These stages are magnificent, but you obviously have to get to know them first. Again, we’ve learnt a lot this weekend. We were up against several people who knew the roads off by heart, so it wasn’t at all easy to beat them. But we were also able to see that, thanks to our C2-R2 MAX on normal customer settings, we could get the best out of ourselves. That was very gratifying for the entire team, who have all worked very hard on this car, and it also shows that with the correct settings for these Nordic roads from the start, our result could have been even better. »
Jean-François Liénéré, in charge of Citroen Sport’s customer division, said : « With another win in both the R2 category and the A6 class, it’s been a good weekend for us. We started off in the unknown, to some extent. But by working hard, Simon, Jack and the PH-Sport team have progressively adapted the C2-R2 MAX to the specific demands of this rally. Little by little, we found the speed, grip and efficiency that we needed. Once more, we received the valuable help of BFGoodrich, whose ‘8’ compound soft tyres allowed us to compete with more powerful cars. Throughout the whole event, the reliability of the C2-R2 MAX and the professionalism of our entire team really stands out. »
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