The two former World Rally Champions entered by Tuthill Porsche on the Midnight Sun Rally in Sweden have finished third and fourth, with 1979 champion Bjorn Waldegard leading home 1984 champion Stig Blomqvist.
Both drivers were at the wheel of identical 3.0-litre Porsche 911s on home territory, similar to the cars used on the Tuthill Porsche Challenge in the UK: the only one-make rally championship in the world for historic Porsches.
Tuthill Porsche also ran local privateer Peter Andersson, who finished 53rd in a similar 911.
The event, based in Vasteras close to Stockholm, took in 170 kilometres of stages (mostly gravel with some asphalt) and 1250 kilometres of road section over three days. The Friday of the rally was extremely wet, making tyre choice critical.
Both cars reached the finish with no problems, although Blomqvist’s car lost some time earlier in the rally with an engine that was slightly down on power. This was subsequently solved in service, and Blomqvist eventually came home 30 seconds behind his team mate.
Between them, the Tuthill Porsche duo have racked up 27 World Rally Championship wins, and their participation on the Midnight Sun event was made possible by David Von Shinkel from Team Tido.
Waldegard, co-driven by his son Matthias, commented: “I really enjoyed myself on the event. We had a good run from start to finish and no real problems. Driving the Porsche was a lot of fun and actually quite easy once you are used to it. After a damper change on the second day we could push much more, so I’m very happy with our result as well.”
Blomqvist, co-driven by Robert Jakobsson, added: “It was a good fight with Bjorn and a great rally. These are some of the best stages in the world. We had a small problem on the Thursday when we were slightly down on power but after this was fixed the car felt really great. I was impressed with the engine, and after doing a similar damper change to Bjorn we could push.”
This was not the first time that the two World Champions have been team mates: they previously drove for Tuthill Porsche on the Boucles de Spa rally several years ago.
Tuthill Porsche director Richard Tuthill commented: “It’s been an absolute pleasure to welcome Bjorn and Stig back to our cars, and I’m delighted that they both seem to have enjoyed themselves. The cars we were running were similar to the ones we use for the Tuthill Porsche Challenge back in the UK, but with an uprated engine, which performed very well. Despite the long route we enjoyed perfect reliability, underlining once more how much of an ideal car the Porsche 911 is for historic rallying.”
Tuthill Porsche is currently preparing several historic 911s for the next big adventure featuring former world champions: the East African Safari Rally through Kenya from 19-28 November, covering more than 4500 kilometres.
