Good ol' Rickard

[the_tsar]

Rickard Rydell got himself on to the podium with 3rd place at his and Volvo's home race in race 2. Also good to see Priaulx add to his collection of podiums.

Jorg Muller leading the championship, hmmm.... the name Muller is taking over the world!!

[the_tsar]

Result Race 2
1.Nicola Larini Alfa Romeo 156
2.Andy Priaulx BMW 320i
3.Rickard Rydell Volvo S60
4.Jörg Müller BMW 320i
5.Antonio GarcÃ*a BMW 320i
6.Fabrizio Giovanardi BMW 320i
7.Duncan Huisman BMW 320i
8.Alessandro Balzan Alfa

[the_tsar]

1 42 Jörg Müller 72
2 3 Nicola Larini 70
3 11 Andy Priaulx 66
4 4 Gabriele Tarquini 64
5 43 Dirk Müller 64
6 5 Roberto Colciago 47
7 1 Fabrizio Giovanardi 35
8 21 Duncan Huisman 34
9 2 Antonio GarcÃ*a 33
10 60 Rickard Rydell 18
11 20 Tom Coronel 11
12 24 Alessandro Balzan 10
13 16 Paolo Ruberti 9
14 15 Fabio Francia 4
15 9 Jordi Gené 4
16 12 André Couto 3
17 14 Salvatore Tavano 2

[kmchow]

Hey, I own and love Volvos, buuuut was his 3rd place earned by his good driving or did the other cars breakdown and get DNFs?? Has the S60 engine and/or handling improved significantly? Or was it just down to hometrack advantage?

[Dani Filth]

good driving .. he qualified six .. and finished 7th in race one so in race two started second . and was overtaken only by Larini .. probably if Giovanrdi would not have taken Colciago out . he would have finished fourth . but Rydell drove very well .. and kept Muller behind him ..
if i remember corectly Rydell put his Volvo on the podiium for the first time one year ago exactly at Anderstorp ...

[BSchneiderFan]

One can only hope that Rydell gets a decent drive for '04; he's wasted his talent for too long.

[BootsOntheSide]

It'll be a rgeat 5 way title shootout this year - I'll be rooting for Priaulx of course, but whoever wins will ahve earnt it.

Rickard has done a great job in outdated under-developed hardware, and it's soul-destroyign to se ehow much Volvo shafted him. He's now waster 3 eyars of his career on a hiding to nothing. Some reqard for developing their BTCC challenge from nothing!

[JMeissner]

Originally posted by Dani Filth

if i remember corectly Rydell put his Volvo on the podiium for the first time one year ago exactly at Anderstorp ...

No, he had finished on the podium before that. But it was his closest race to a win.

Anderstorp suits the Volvo extremely well. Medium high speed corners. Rydell was unable to fight in the top in race one with a setup that casued too much understeer.

But in the second race, according to him, the setup was very good. And I followed the race at Anderstorp, and Rydell had no problems keeping his third place. No one gained on him and he actually gained on the number two man.

[ATF]

Originally posted by JMeissner
No, he had finished on the podium before that. But it was his closest race to a win.

Overtaken by Jorg Muller at the last corner of the last lap!!! ;( But well deserved this weekend Rick! Come back to Britain!


I can't be any fairer than to say that (British) Eurosport's coverage of the ETCC races was abysmal. Adverts every 5 - 10 minutes (and not just short breaks - loads of adverts for LG).

There were very few replays and you really didn't get to see what happened between the 2 Alfas on the 1st lap of race 1. There were hardly any captions during the race showing the placings.

The commentator had no idea of what he was on about and there were embarrassingly long pauses where (I suspect) he kept reading his notes. He constantly got drivers and cars mixed up and it was just awful to listen to (eg he said Jorg Muller had finished 3rd not 4th).

This really isn't the way to showcase Europe's premier touring car championship - no wonder the crowd attendance is so low in Britain - it's hardly the publicity it deserves.

[kmchow]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
Rickard has done a great job in outdated under-developed hardware, and it's soul-destroyign to se ehow much Volvo shafted him.

What do you mean by outdated? I can understand under-developed? Do you mean outdated because he did not get a brand new car to race with?

He's now waster 3 years of his career on a hiding to nothing. Some reqard for developing their BTCC challenge from nothing!

It's a real shame to lose Rydell to another make. Is '03 the last year of his contract? His touring car career was launched with Volvo. And to see him now is just sad. I wonder how he's feeling? Is he getting depressed or disappointed with Volvo (Ford?)

[JMeissner]

Rydell will for sure not be in a Volvo 2004.

[Dani Filth]

i remember that Volvo said that 2003 is going to be a break year like Mitsubishi in WRC .. so if they come back in 2004(or 2005 with the new S40 ) .. Rydell is the man to deliver ...
regarding the first corner incident ... i think both Larini and Tarquini made mistakes .. and the contact was made on the gravel ... anyway although Alfa won both races . they could have done much better .. probably a clean sweep of the podium ... at least in race one ...

[touringlegend]

Rickard has tested an Opel DTM car if anyone's interested but has said he'd take a drive in the ETCC, BTCC or DTM if it looked good.

[BSchneiderFan]

He was pretty handy in a Ferrari 550 too. Let's face it, he's versatile and should do well wherever he goes, given a halfway decent car. Though that's probably what Menu thought when he signed for Opel...

[JMeissner]

Originally posted by Dani Filth
i remember that Volvo said that 2003 is going to be a break year like Mitsubishi in WRC .. so if they come back in 2004(or 2005 with the new S40 ) .. Rydell is the man to deliver ...
regarding the first corner incident ... i think both Larini and Tarquini made mistakes .. and the contact was made on the gravel ... anyway although Alfa won both races . they could have done much better .. probably a clean sweep of the podium ... at least in race one ...

Sadly we won't see Volvo on the tracks for at least two years. But things are chaning within Volvo, new leaders with more taste of racing...

[BSchneiderFan]

I dimly remember someone at Volvo floating the idea of prototype racing at one point; but I suppose it will be touring cars. It's a shame (well, I think it is) that Volvo isn't interested in the DTM. I'd love to see a C70 with a Mustang V8 shoehorned into it, and Rydell at the wheel. Pity they scratched Zakspeed's project.

[ATF]

Originally posted by touringlegend
Rickard has tested an Opel DTM car if anyone's interested but has said he'd take a drive in the ETCC, BTCC or DTM if it looked good.

I remember reading the 2003 BTCC season preview and Rickard tipped MG to win, saying (along the lines of...) he had links with the team and that would be the way to go for a BTCC drive!

I would love to see him back in Britain - something the BTCC lacks is international competition and he is such a class driver!

[FIRE]

I thought the Volvo's had only factory support last season? The Volvo's were on the right way to succes with the help of Prodrive last year. But now...

It's a shame (well, I think it is) that Volvo isn't interested in the DTM. I'd love to see a C70 with a Mustang V8 shoehorned into it, and Rydell at the wheel. Pity they scratched Zakspeed's project.

Indeed, it was a stupid decision of Volvo. I mean look what privat team Abt did with the TT against the full factory teams of Mercedes and Opel. This year Abt gets official Audi backing.
It was also a stupid decision of DTM! If they allowed Zakspeed to compete with the non-factory Volvo they had 4 different cars instead of only 3.

[kmchow]

Originally posted by FIRE
Indeed, it was a stupid decision of Volvo.

Yeah, I sometimes really wonder about Volvo management? What happened to all those BTCC/STCC supporters among management? Did they all retire or something? Why the sudden cold shoulder to racing?

I mean look what privat team Abt did with the TT against the full factory teams of Mercedes and Opel.

It would have been real interesting to see if Zakspeed could have made the C70 competitive. OTOH, to be fair, the TTs didn't become successful until the DTM organizers made concessions regarding the TTs wheelbase?

It was also a stupid decision of DTM! If they allowed Zakspeed to compete with the non-factory Volvo they had 4 different cars instead of only 3.

It wasn't totally their fault as Volvo turned down Zakspeed? OTOH, I guess if the DTM didn't make a rule requiring manufacturer blessing, then Zakspeed could have raced. OTOH, I guess the DTM didn't want to become another V8Star and have debadged cars.

[racer69]

If you beleive some of the rumours Rydell will race for Triple 8 in Australia next year. Other rumours have Muller getting the seat.

He has done a good job in poor equipment this year

[ATF]

A while back I raised the issue of why Rickard Rydell isn't eligible for the independents cup. The answer came back as ART didn't consider themselves true independents. But I have since noticed that Sandro Sardelli is now on the indies points table but Rydell isn't!!!

Can anyone explain THIS?!?!