Hi, friends!
There's s rumour that Marcus Gronholm could do a Rally Sweden next season with Toyota Yaris WRC.
Gronholm is a good friend with Toyota World Rally Team boss Tommi Makinen and he already did some promo drives for Toyota so the connection already exists.
Will that be a comercial deal (paying drive) or an official entry, we have to wait for announcement.
It would be interesting to see how Gronholm can perform in fight with the young guns, younger then him at least aprx 20 years.
For guys who don't know, Marcus Gronholm is a Finnish driver and a twice World Rally Champion from 2000 and 2002. He won his both championships with the Peugeot team but we could say that it was the most prominent years for Peugeot in the modern era of rallying.
Gronholm started with Toyota in 90's and that was the time I heard for him for the first time. He had some good results but nothing special if you ask me.
When he signed a contract with Peugeot, and it was in 1999, I was asking myself: what could this guy do against Delacour and Panizzi who were with the team for a long time and we know that Delacour won four WRC events in the early nineties.
Soon, Gronholm showed all his potential but he also had some shunts. Everybody knew that Peugeot had the winning car.
Next season was 2000 and Gronholm won it with style, competition could just watch their dominance.
Season 2001 was the Subaru year and he couldn't do anything against Richard Burns and his Subaru Impreza WRC. From the first event of the season, and it was Monte Carlo Rallye, car wasn't good. Some small bugs around engine and electrics were killing Gronholm's confidance and that was it.
Season 2002 was another Gronholm's years. He won again in a dominat way. This time he had Richard Burns, 2001 World Rally Champion as a team-mate, because Burns signed very rich contract with Peugeot befor he snatched the Championship. That didn't bothered Marcus to win with his favorite car - Peugeot 206 WRC.
In 2004 Peugeot put their new WRC car into the flash of light - 307 WRC. That was the end of their dominance. The car was too have for the roads but with powerful engine, a lot stronger then competition.
The biggest car's problem was 4-gears gearbox? That dog box was always a mess. Every other rally team had to retire or lose a time because of it. Gronholm used to publicaly speak against his boss and a Peugeot Sport leader Corrado Provera. And it was easy to hear what he said about it.
At the end of 2005 Peugeot withdrew from the World Rally Championship and Gronholm signed for Ford. Ford had really good budget at that time and it wasn't a problem to pay fpr a Gronholm's drive. That 2006 season was a Citroen's sabatical year but Loeb drove for Belgium based private team Kronos Racing and again he won. Gronholm and Ford were just unable to do anything more. Loeb's Citroen Xsara WRC was just too good for them. Just like Peugeot 206 WRC was better then the competition a few years earlier.
Gronholm retired from WRC at the end of season 2007 but had a one event with Prodrive's Subaru Impreza WRC S14 in 2009.
Later he drove in World RX championship.
Credit for photo and video to WRC Official Facebook and private Youtube channels.
Grab a beer and enjoy!
Cheers!
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