2011 is winding down, with just a few weeks left to go. While for many of us that means tidying up loose ends and relaxing for the holidays, for rally racers across the globe it is more about preparation for the fast-approaching 2012 racing season. The first WRC event in Monte Carlo is just a month away, and so racers and their teams are prepping for what is sure to be a thrilling season of rally action.
Carscoop reports that former WRC Champion and current Ford rally driver Petter Solberg was caught out on the roads, testing his WRC Fiesta for the 2012 racing season. The four-and-a-half minute video includes some dramatic music and footage at the beginning, but soon enough the only sounds are that of the sweet-sounding WRC Fiesta tearing up the road course.Solberg makes driving a 600-horsepower, all-wheel drive racing Fiesta look easy.
But it isn’t, as one wrong move would send him careening over a cliff or flying into a forest of unforgiving trees. He completed about 200 miles of driving through the Swiss Alps for this practice run, and we hope that gives him an advantage come the actual start of the racing season next month. Judging from past experience though, Solberg should have no trouble taking his Fiesta to the top of the pack next season. Those other WRC drivers better be practicing twice as hard if they want to take down the former champ.