Mille Johansson is contesting the second round of the ERC Junior this weekend together with the co-driver Johan Grönvall. In their Ford Fiesta Rally4 from the Slovenian team IKsport, Rally Liepāja is run in Latvia starting this Friday.
The rally is the second event in this year’s ERC Junior, and after being forced to retire from the first round in Poland from fifth place with a broken driveshaft, Mille and Johan are in need of points.
– I have a good feeling. We had a good test and I feel confident in the car. Now we have to score points in the remaining races of the series, so the goal will be to build up a high and safe pace but also set some good stage times, says Mille.
– The goal is to reach the podium, of course, then whether we get there remains to be seen. But we will do everything to give it a try. It feels like we got the car really well set-up for this type of roads, says Johan.
The Polish ERC-event a month ago was the first time Mille drove a tuned rally car on gravel. Despite that, he and Johan were fastest in the class on the first stage. After that, they have also run a Swedish championship-event to come well prepared for Latvia.
– We take with us the experience on gravel we have gained in recent weeks, and hope we can build on the speed we showed in Poland, continues Mille.
Tet Rally Liepāja is decided over 10 stages. The rally starts on Friday with the shakedown, before the first leg of the competition is decided on Saturday morning. A total of 180 kilometers on Latvian gravel roads will be driven during the weekend. In the ERC Junior, for two-wheel drive rally cars, there are 17 cars on the starting line.