Volkswagen Team Sweden

Johan is really free, wins a prestigious title and makes a long westward flight.

”The last week I haven’t been at work at all. I’ve had some more days off, but not really been free from work. I have been able to do a lot of physical training during my vacation: roller skies, running and cycling. We also had time for a boat trip, the first one this year with my father’s boat, and we had a pizza on board. I have done so much exercise now that I doubt whether it landed in my stomach before it was digested, ha-ha.”

One part of your ”holiday” was dedicated to a camp with the national motorsport team.

We went to Hudiksvall and did som good physical exercise on mountainbikes. We were fifteen people in all, juniors and seniors, a really good camp and it got even better as I won the competition. As usual we had a ”race of Champions” where we were supposed to drive radio controlled cars, do bicycling and gocarting. In the first discipline I finished fifth och then won the bicycling. Actually, Timmy Hansen was ahead of me but the crashed in the last corner so I nicked it. Finally we went carting and the rain started falling so my heavy weight disadvantage was diminished. You could say that I stretched the book of rules a bit in the last corner, where I went from seventh to fourth. I think the judge was looking in another direction right then, but such things happen, he-he.”

Before the break you were talking about a test with Ole Christian’s car ahead of Canada and Norway.

”Unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way. After Höljes we had no engine to use for that purpose. I also would have liked to be in the Swedish Championship race at Westombanan last weekend, for several reasons. Firstly, I like the track, secondly it is my home ground, and thirdly I think we could have scored a good result. That was a petty, because I was very keen on driving and would have loved to find the speed again ahead of Canada.”

Earlier this season you have stressed the importance of routines, like you have had with your habits in the padock and so on. Now all this will be changed when you go across the Atlantic for next race. Your bus and trailer will be back home.

”As far as I know they have built a huge tent in the paddock where all teams will be placed, separated by screen walls. For sure that will be a bit special and you wonder what areas are to be found for spending time between the heats. The funny thing is that even though it is so far away from home we leave one or two days later than we did going to Portugal. When we land in Montreal there are just a couple of hours drive to the track, certainly less ground to cover than most races this year.”

You haven’t been at this track before.

”I haven’t dug deeply in my studies of the track, partly due to the fact that I think they have rebuilt the track since last year. The jumps are said to be different this year. It feels good that out engineers from Trollspeed were there last year. It would be nice to get a solid weekend and a good result, and in Norway as well, because I think we will be up to a big challenge later on, with tracks that do not suit us very well.

 Jetlag is expected…

”We will have a long day on the flight, via Amsterdam to Montreal. I still enjoy flying and had no problem with the jetlag when I was competing in Australia, neither way actually.

Let’s just hope that you have packed everything then…

”Of course, you can’t bring everything, but the weight we were allowed was quite generous. We have shipped the cars of  1 300 kilos each and equally much in spare parts for each car. It takes some planning. You can’t just call Laban at home and ask him to come over with a couple of things, ha-ha.”