Umeå in Sweden is set to host a very special Rallycross event on January 18, when the usual tarmac and gravel surface will be replaced by ice and snow.

From Tuesday the 14th to Sunday the 19th of January the town of Umeå (the ‘2014 European Capital of Culture’) in the north of Sweden is the host of 2014th so-called ‘SM-veckan’ [Swedish Championship Week]. This time the regular Swedish kind of “mini olympic” event with about two dozen sporting disciplines will also have the motorsport of Rallycross featured, alongside a Rallysprint that has already been part of the programme in previous years. Both racing events will be overseen by former World Rally Championship ace and Rallycross driver Thomas Rådström, who is the organisers’ man to create the necessary tracks. For the Rallycross course the local horse trotting track will be used, all its surface shall then be covered by ice and snow.

“On a January afternoon in Umeå it is pretty dark, so we will illuminate the entire Rallycross track to get appropriate conditions for both, the drivers and the television production. We hope that we will be able to create something really nice out there. It usually works fine at the Färjestad trotting track, when a Swedish winter rally has its runs here,” says Thomas “Rådis” Rådström in good mood.

Bengt-Göran Grenander, chairman of the Rallycross committee of Sweden’s ASN Svenska Bilsportförbundet (SBF), adds: “It will be a mix of Rallycross, Ice Racing and Folkrace, one could say. Our focus has been to simplify much of the arrangement. Of course it all should match the SM competition rules. But in a close dialogue with the organisers we have agreed to leave as much ‘technology’ out as we can, especially all that could start to hamper the proceedings of the TV broadcasting under such cold weather circumstances.”