Lørdag morgen dro jeg oppover til Aurskog for å være til stede på Mads Østberg sitt hjemmeløp. For noen uker siden var jeg nemlig så heldig å få jobben som presseansvarlig for Mads, noe jeg ble kjempe glad for. Jeg var ferdig for to uker siden med bachlergrad i journalistikk ved Griffith College i Dublin, og ved dette kunne jeg endelig få bruk for interessen min for rally og journalistikk i en og samme jobb.

Det skulle vise seg at jeg ikke skulle være bare presseansvarlig på Aurskog-Høland rally. Ti minutter før Mads skulle starte sier han: ”Marlene, Jonas er syk du må være kartleser for meg, jeg har hentet noter og roadbok, bare få tak i kjøredress!”
I løpet av noen få sekunder var en alt for stor kjøredress, undertøy, balaklava, klokke, noter og roadbok på plass. Og der satt jeg i en Ford Fiesta S2000 rally bil å skulle være kartleser for min svigerbror som er en av verdens beste sjåfører i rally. Jeg rakk ikke en gang tenke på hva jeg hadde sagt ja til før jeg sto på start og ble intervjuet av NRK. Det var ingen tvil om at jeg ikke skulle stille opp for Mads, han er en person jeg ser opp til og er stolt av å være hans presseansvarlig. Riktig nok har jeg drevet med rally siden jeg var 15 år, og var kartleser i mange år før jeg valgte å begynne å kjøre selv, men aldri på toppnivå. Jeg må innrømme at jeg var glad for at det bare er noen måneder siden jeg satt på med Anders Brynildsen i SM delen av rally Sverige. Arrangørnoter derimot har jeg ikke lest på flere år og det gikk greit, men det passet overhode ikke til tempoet til Mads, og heller ikke de notene han selv skriver.

Før start på første prøven gruet jeg meg til hvilket tempo vi skulle ha. Mads kjører jo om totallseieren, og lite viste jeg hva som ventet meg. Jeg fikk en veldig positiv opplevelse på den første korte prøven, man merket ikke farten i bilen i det hele tatt og vi kjørte inn til en andre tid, kun slått av Anders Grøndal, som søsteren min Veroinca Engan er kartleser for.

Men på andre prøven skulle det vise seg at vi skulle få problemer. Før løpstart lakk oljekjørlern, og etter to lange strekninger tidlig på ss2 på nesten 600 meter med toppfart gikk bilen på turtallsperra og vi fikk allerede da motorproblemer. Bilen gikk på tre sylindere og vi måtte bare kjøre ut av prøven. Det gikk forsatt fint ann kjøre bilen – selv uten topphastighet, og til service lå vi på en 10 plass med 1 minutt og 26 sekunder opp til leende Anders Grøndal.

På service fant mekanikerne ut hva feilen var og jeg fikk beskjed om at nå skulle det laddes, vi skulle hente inn 2. Plassen. Jeg var veldig glad for at det bare var korte prøver før første servicen, for de neste seks prøvene bortsett fra en kort publimsprøve var alle på over 1,3 mil. og det skulle vise seg at vi vant alle disse, bortsett fra publikmsprøven.

Vi kunne kjøre inn til seier i N4 og med en andre plass totalt. Jeg har hatt min livs opplevelse, men noen store utfordringer. Det var ikke bare bare og steppe inn for Jonas som er kartleser på toppnivå og bilen var heller ikke på vår side. Det ble noen turer i bekken etter vann med de flaskene vi hadde med oss i bilen for å kjøle ned girkassa, og litt skruing måtte til.

Alt i alt har jeg hatt det kjempe gøy, selv om det var først på de to siste etappene jeg følte at jeg fant flyten i notene, det var nemlig ikke mulig å se opp for i arrangørnoter er det mye å lese.

Tusen takk Mads, for en opplevelse jeg sent vil glemme. Du viser hvor erfaren og hvilken flink sjåfør du er, og takk for at du hadde trua på meg. Du fortjener virkelig det sete du har i Stobart M-sport Ford Rally Team :)

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Last picture of my car before I crashed, Photo: Joakim Winberg

As many of you already know my whole family do something with motor sport and my brother-in-law is a WRC-driver, so as you can see I am born in to a rally family. It started with my grandpa (my fathers dad) who started to drive race with a NSU on ice in 1964. In 1977 – was my dad first race in go-kart. On the other side of the family in 1978, my mum´s dad – started do drive go-kart. It was here my mum and dad meet. In 1985 – my mother´s brother – started to compete in go-kart as well.  My grandpas was my dads toughest competitors, and together they traveled throughout Norway and to Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany and Italy to race go-carts.
So they have all started with go-kart, except my grandfather on my dad´s side. He and my dad was driving together some years from 1988 in a NSU rally car, before my dad wanted to try by himself as a driver – and at that time, with my mum as a co-driver. You can know understand that my sister and I was born in to a rally – we had only one choice – to love it or hate it. But both of us have always love it. We was part of every race, sometimes as spectators or we where just at the service park. I was a little girl, when I said to my dad that I wanted to be a driver when I was old enough. Both my sister and I trained with a go-kart for two years, but it was the same year as I turned 16, so I started to co-drive for my grandfather. The year after I got the opportunity to co-drive for my dad. (My sister did it first, she is three years older than me) We drove together some years, before I started to drive by my self at age 19. At this point my dad was no longer in the car, he was a mechaniser for me. We tried together in one rally, but it didn’t work so well. My last race as a driver for in september 2010, where I rolled and crash my Ford Fiesta ST.
Right now, I have not even a rally car after my crash, but I hope I will get a new one when I come back from Dublin, that’s what the goal is for this season. Co-driving is not the thing for me.
So now I just following my sister’s careers as co-pilot in the Norwegian Championship and PWRC, and my brother in-law in the WRC and in the Norwegian Championship. It´s a thrill to following them, but I know that I will drive again. It is terrible to listen to the rally radio and not even be at the rally.
Motor sports has come to be in my life forever.

Twitter is one import medium for media, and I´m on twitter as well. Some say that twitter is not sportspersons, but I think that it is a good way to see what your favourite sportsperson do. You can follow Mads Østberg – Ford WRC driver (my brother-in-low) on @madsostberg and me @marleneengan.

No longer a rally car in the garage - just things to our knew house in the mountains. I hope a new car will be there in the end of this year

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Eggemoen 2011

Yesterday I was at Eggemoen go-kart circuit home in Norway. I have been home from Dublin for easter and I miss motorsport a lot when I´m in Dublin. My car and my life is in Norway – everything is different in Dublin. In Dublin we use the bus or we just walk. The race I was looking at was just a small race, and it was a friend of mine´s little brother who was driving. When I can´t drive by my self, it´s fun to be around motorsport people. Must of you compare me just with rally, but I started with go-kart, just as many other have done. I never competed, because I was ten when I started, and  you had to be 12 to drive a race. I drove go-kart for two years, and when the year came to that year I could compete, I stopped. The reason was that I had always been a ballet dancer since I was three years old, and had a break from it when I trained with go-kart. I started to dance again when I was 12, but my family was still into motorsport, so I was not far away from it.
When we where watching the race, all of my memories came up – that´s why I wanted to sheer this with you. I remember I was so scared the first time I should drive. I was crying the whole day, and said to my sister that she had to do it first. But in the end of the day, I did it. On the trip home I was so glad that I did it.
One thing a regret today, is that I quit at age 12. Because I started to drive a rally car just after my 18th birthday, and I started from the beginning, with no experience. If I had continued, I had lots of driving experience.
It was really fun to watch the young kids, driving and competing .But I have to regret one thing. I said the same thing, as I don´t like to hear my self – look it´s a girl who is driving.

My old go-kart at Varna/Moss in Norway

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I know that Rally Sweden was two month ago, but I want to tell you guys about the rally.
As written in the last post, I started to co-drive for Anders Brynildsen this winter season because of my crash and my situation in life. It is not easy to be in Dublin and try to get sponsors, when my assignment takes almost every minute of my life. But to stay away from really was really hard, I didn´t know that until this season. To miss it so much, when I have done it for years, it was really hard to stay away. Before rally Sweden, we had very much to organise, it was not just Anders and me who was suppose to travel, we where 7 people in our team. We was lucky to even get to start in the rally, because we were two weeks to late to even apply to the event. It tok us one day to apply, sign and find hotel. Then the day suddenly was there. I had prepared in my head for the rally for weeks, and I got home from Dublin just the day before we traveled to Karlstad – Sweden. I was lucky that the rally was in week two of the semester, so I missed just some classes that week. Even to print out every documentary of the rally guides and bulletins tok me two hours, and my blue book was with me every where I went. It´s hard to be a co-driver. This was new for me, because I had never attended a WRC rally as a co-driver, just as a driver. We did not participated in WRC, but in the Swedish Championship of the rally. Last year, this rally was a part of the Fiesta cup. I felt that in this rally, everything was on me. That was new for me, because in my team – my dad takes care of everything, suddenly I was alone and was suppose to knew the time schedule, where to be, and what to do – not just for Anders and me, but for the service guys as well. I felt sometimes that the job as a co-driver was to difficult for me, but I really tried to do my best – so that Anders could do his job – drive fast. The recce started tuesday morning, and we had prepared hard, and did everything we could to have good pace notes. But like mention in the earlier post – it was a long time a go for both of us, so it was a challenge for us. I´m really glad that I remembered so much from last year, I recognised the roads and the job as a co-driver was therefor easier. We used a lot time on the recce Tuesday and Wednesday. After finished the driving, when we where back at the hotel – we started to watch it on the camera, just to know that the pace notes we had did, was correct. Then the Friday was came, and it was our time to drive. I was so nervous before we started, I wanted to be a perfect co-driver for Anders. To be that – driver and co-driver has to be confident in each other. As a co-driver you can recognise that the driver feels that something is wrong with the car, and then it´s harder to read correct. Anders always says that he thinks the reading is good, so I am really glad for that. The communication between us is really good, but the setup of car was not correct. The problem that mad the driving difficult was that we started without enough tension in diff front. We should have had about 12kg, and had less than 4 kg. This was said after we have had the last service in the end of the day, and when the service was – we did not know this. So we tried other things to make the car better. In addition, we received a oil leek from the gearbox and at the service when they should try to improve this, the oil hose from oil cooler to the transmission. Therefore we had to stop Saturday morning.

The rally ended there for us. We were really disappointed at that time, but we where glad that we didnt roll or had crash the car. In a rally like this, it takes a lot of preparation and time, so do end a rally like this is not fun

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