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The 2011 FST International Shootout winner, Steve Røkland, finished just 0.3 seconds off the podium at the Mountain Rally in Norway last weekend as the youngster tackled his first round of the season in his M-Sport prepared Ford Fiesta R2.
Despite limited time in the car, the Norwegian remained satisfied with the result: “It was really a bit as expected,” admitted Røkland when asked about the day’s events. “With very little mileage in the car and only two miles of testing, we knew the first race was going to be difficult. But I'm still happy with the result. We lost a lot of time on both SS1 and SS3 as the set-up was not quite right for the snow and ice, and we struggled with poor grip on the front of the car.”
Having altered the cars setup during service, Røkland matched his competitors on SS4; experiencing vastly improved grip levels with his Fiesta. Clearly getting to grips with his Fiesta, Røkland was the fastest 2WD on the penultimate stage, SS5. As for the final stage, fans were in for a real treat with only 0.1 seconds separating the FST Shootout winner from fellow Norwegian, Frank Tore Larsen and third place.
”It was very exciting until the last stage and I was really excited to set a good time”, said Røkland.
Despite an impressive time, the gap was not easy to overturn. Røkland completed his first event of the season as well as his first event with the Fiesta in 4th place, just 0.3 seconds adrift of Larsen in the final podium position.
”I am happy even if it didn’t go our way this time”, said Røkland. “The morning stages were really tricky, but when we managed to find a setting on the car that worked well my pace was good. We have some work to do before Elverum [Røkland’s next round in the Norwegian Championship], but I'm sure we'll be back even stronger.”
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