Let’s be honest, there’s nothing new about a dominant performance in American rallying. Back in the beginning it was all about Buffum and, down the years, there’s been more than odd Higgins win. Then the current Canadian-Brit alliance rocked up to rule for the last three and a bit years.
And now there’s a Swede called Calle.
As we know, a single swallow doesn’t make a summer. But the 24-year-old Carlberg was something special on an unexpectedly summery weekend in Salem.
There’s no doubting his calibre as a driver. Finishing second in last year’s Junior ERC demonstrated his pace, but few expected the Team FJ Peugeot 208 Rally4 to do quite the number it did on the rest of the Open 2WD class at last week’s 100 Acre Wood Rally.
One stage in to the second round of this year’s ARA National Championship presented by Kubota and DirtFish is looking sharp. We predicted a mighty fight for O2WD honors and new boy Carlberg has it by 1.5 seconds from Micah Nickelson.
Stage two done and it’s looking a touch more one-sided. First loop complete and he’s a minute up. End of day one and it’s looking like a done deal. A day later and he’s won the class by almost seven minutes. Oh, and he won every stage.
Welcome to America.
“Thank you,” he smiled politely. “Actually, it’s the first time I’ve ever been to America – I got the full American experience with the tornado! It’s really cool, so many people. We don’t have anything like this parc expose, even in the European [Rally] Championship. It feels like American rallying is in a good place.”
But what about that pace?
“I didn’t know what to expect from this rally,” he said.
Carlberg won every single stage in Open 2WD to really announce himself
That’s understandable. America’s flexibility to pit a three-liter BMW M3 or a V6-engined Escort against a front-wheel drive class car from Europe is part of the appeal. Watching Carlberg walk around parc expose in Potosi, south of St Louis, at lunchtime on Friday was intriguing. He was a long way from his southern Swedish home in Jönköping.
Once he’d slotted the 208 into stage mode an hour or so later, he couldn’t have looked more comfortable.
“It was so much fun,” he said at the finish. “Maybe the car doesn’t have as much power as you are used to here, but it’s so much fun – and there’s a lot of spectators coming out and saying that I’m even wider than the four-wheel drive cars. That puts a big smile of my face.
The Swede would love compete in America again and showcase what he and the Rally4 can do
“But, to be honest, I was just trying to drive with zero mistakes. Yesterday (Friday) I was exploring the car a little bit, but today I was pushing harder. We have been trying to show what the car can do – that’s the idea from Peugeot and Stellantis, let’s say, to bridge the gap between European rallying market and the American one.
“I think we have done that, we have shown American drivers it’s a good step to buy this car and drive in America. And it’s even easier for them to go to Europe if they want.”
And Calle? Will he be back in America?
The response is as immediate as it is wide-eyed.
“Love to.”
