Van Merksteijn to start in WRC Rally of Sweden

Van Merksteijn will take part in the World Rally Championship Rally of Sweden from February 11th until the 14th. Father and son Van Merksteijn will start for the second time in this famous and unique rally which has in its history been won only once by a non Scandinavian driver.

It has been a long time for Peter van Merksteijn that he was behind the wheel of the Ford Focus WRC. After the Rally of Portugal of April 2009, the Dutch entrepreneur has not competed in the rally sport. Together with his Belgian co-driver Erwin Mombaerts he will start in Karlstad driving the Focus WRC with number 65 for the second time, this time with the blue Mistral livery on the car. Peter enjoyed the 2008 edition of the Rally of Sweden so much that he immediately announced that he would return to Varmland the next time. In 2008 Peter missed the Colin’s Crest Award for the furthest jump on special stage Vargasen by just a few decimeters which will be run twice on Saturday.

Peter van Merksteijn jnr, car 63, has a Ford Focus WRC 08 available to him for the Rally of Sweden, the car he used last year in several rounds of the Dutch championship. Peter jnr’s car is brought back into the distinctive purple colours of Van Merksteijn Fencing Systems. The last time Peter jnr. started in Rally of Sweden was with a group N car but with the gained experience of driving in Norway with the Focus WRC he is confident about his chances in next week’s rally.

Father and son Van Merksteijn have been testing extensively in Norway 2 weeks prior to the start of the only winter rally in the WRC season. With the guidance of a very experienced Scandinavian rally driver, they have trained for 4 days on snow and ice in preparation for the special conditions in the Swedish forests. Van Merksteijn Motorsport brought their own cars to the test in Norway and in both the Ford Focus WRC and the indestructible Mitsubishi Evo IX of the team they completed many kilometers and gathered lots of valuable experience.

Van Merksteijn Motorsport will join forces again with Ipatec Racing the Swedish round of the WRC. After the good cooperation in Portugal and Wales, René Kuipers called upon the experience of Van Merksteijn Motorsport to organize their entry in the WRC Rally of Sweden. Despite the close cooperation between both teams, the technical support of the cars of René and Dennis Kuipers will be in the hands of Ipatec Racing.

The 2010 edition of the WRC Rally of Sweden will start on Thursday evening February 11th with a spectator stage in Karlstad. After a total of 345 stage kilometers divided over 21 special stages, the remaining cars will finish again in Karlstad on Sunday afternoon. The service park is moved to Hagfors as well as several stages which are located further north to prevent problems as a result of the lack of snow which hit the event in 2008.