For over 50 years, Rally Sweden has been a highlight of the World Rally Championship calendar.
As the championship’s only full-winter rally for most of its history, the event requires a specific set of skills in order to master it. Driving on snow and ice isn’t like gravel or Tarmac, and you have to learn how to get the most out of your car on the white stuff if you want to be remembered as a Rally Sweden winner.
For decades, the rule for WRC teams was simple. If you want to win in Sweden, then hire a Swede. Or a Finn. But preferably a Swede.
One of the WRC’s best ever snow specialists is Mats Jonsson, who won Rally Sweden twice in the early 1990s. As a child, competing at home on the world stage was something the rally-mad Swede was already dreaming of.
“I was interested in rallying from the time I was a young boy,” the 17-time Swedish Rally Champion told DirtFish.
“Rally Sweden was based in Karlstad for many years, and I lived only 20 kilometers [12.5 miles] from there, so I had seen the rally from the beginning. Of course, every Swedish driver wants to drive in the Swedish WRC round.”
It’s the dream for all Swedish drivers to win their home rallyMats Jonsson
The enthusiastic Swede was lucky enough to do just that an impressive 23 times, and it all started in 1979 driving a classic Swedish car – a Volvo 142.
“I had done many, many local rallies on snow with that car,” recalls Jonsson. “It was 30 or 35 per year in that time. Of course we did Rally Sweden for three years [1979-1981], and I also did the RAC Rally in the UK with it.
“That was also a rally where we saw many Swedish drivers had done good results, so it was a dream to come over there and try the rally.”
So what was it like to compete in the WRC at home for the first time? Turns out, even as a WRC rookie, Jonsson had his eyes on the future.
“In that time, of course it was big to compete in my home rally, but you think more about it after some years.” says the two-time WRC winner. “When you are in the business, you just want to win and you want to do more world championship rallies. But of course, it’s the dream for all Swedish drivers to win their home rally.”
After moving on from his faithful Volvo after the 1981 season, Jonsson needed a new car, and fast. After looking like he might miss his home event in 1982, the Swede struck a deal to drive for Opel at the eleventh hour.
“I had no car to do Rally Sweden with in ‘82, which was really bad,” says Jonsson. “I needed to find a car, but I was lucky that an Opel dealer in Karlstad wanted to help me out. So that’s how I ended up competing for Opel for many years.”
The Group B Opel Ascona 400 brought Jonsson fourth place on 1984 Rally Sweden
Although he started off in the German brand’s Group 2 Ascona, by 1984 he had upgraded to the Group B-spec Ascona 400. With new machinery came a new-found competitiveness at WRC level, and Jonsson made his mark with a fourth-place finish on Rally Sweden that year.
“I was the best two-wheel-drive car after the three Audis,” Jonsson proudly remembers. “That was a good result. But then in ‘85, Ingvar Carlsson with the Mazda was hard to beat [for two-wheel-drive honors], he was quicker.
“The Mazda RX-7 was a lighter car, but the Opel was heavy and it was difficult to keep the life in the tires. We had some problems in the long stages I remember. But we finished [ninth overall, second two-wheel-drive car home], and it was OK.
Jonsson was unable to match Carlsson's lighter Mazda RX-7 in 1985
“After that it was many more years with Opel. I remember we had some support from Opel and Vauxhall; I did some world championship rallies for the factory team, like Finland, New Zealand and [Rally GB].
“My last rally with Opel was 1989. I wanted to do more world championship rounds but there was no answer from them.”
As Jonsson’s Opel days came to an end, the Swedish snow specialists had truly cemented themselves as permanent fixtures on the WRC’s winter round.
Names like Kenneth Eriksson, Ingvar Carlsson, Mikael Ericsson, Per Eklund and the legendary Stig Blomqvist dominated the results sheets, and were all highly sought after by manufacturers looking for a local expert in their quest to score maximum championship points.
Blomqvist, whose final home win came in 1984, and his compatriots were almost unbeatable in Sweden
But what made the Swedes so good back then?
“In the ‘80s and ‘90s, it was very difficult to win the rally if you didn’t come from Sweden or Finland,” local legend Jonsson confirms. “We had all done a lot of testing before, and there were so many local rallies too, so of course I knew Rally Sweden so well. I think I was always taking the right tire choices and things like this.”
“It takes time to learn the speed on the snow and ice. I remember in 1995, it was Carlos Sainz’s first time coming to Sweden, and his first winter rally. I was there at the test, and he was very interested in what I was doing with the car and everything. So he learned it also.
“I remember Colin [McRae] always really wanted to win the Swedish Rally, but he never did it. So it was difficult.”
McRae scored four podiums on Rally Sweden, including in 1993, but never won
After watching his compatriots get their shots at the big time in winning machinery, Jonsson’s time would finally come in 1990, when a certain Japanese brand came knocking.
“I got a call from a Toyota dealer in Sweden,” says Jonsson. “They offered me a chance to drive [a Celica GT-4] here in Sweden, so that was great to get into a four-wheel-drive car for the first time, and the best WRC car around at that time.”
“I won the national championship in Sweden in 1990, and I should have done the Rally Sweden that year but it was canceled because it was a really bad winter. But they did a short rally sprint in Karlstad instead of the rally, which I was lucky enough to win. So it was a really good start with the Toyota.”
Twelve months later, the conditions in Karlstad were perfect, and the stage was set for an epic battle between two Swedish giants: Jonsson in his Celica GT-4 vs Eriksson in his Mitsubishi Galant.
“We had a big fight in 1991 with Kenneth,” the former Toyota works driver recalls. “I was leading for a while because Kenneth did a jump-start, so he got a one-minute penalty. It was a nice fight, but he was a little bit quicker as well. He won and we were second, it was a good result.”
Kenneth Eriksson's Mitsubish Galant VR-4 edged Jonsson in 1991
In 1992, Jonsson went one better, finally winning his home round of the WRC at the 13th attempt after dominating the event, taking the lead on SS3 and never looking back over the rally’s remaining 28 tests. And it wouldn’t be the last time we’d see the local driver on the top step of a WRC podium
“It was really good to win the first world championship rally,” says Jonsson. “Beating Colin McRae [who finished second] was great, and also Markku Alén [third] who was my team-mate at Toyota, so it was identical cars. It was really, really good for me. It was a big time.
“Then I had number one on the car for 1993 [as the top seeded driver] after winning in ‘92. I remember going into the first corner [of the rally] and there was a little bit of snow on the road, which I wasn’t used to!
“That year it was another really big fight, there were five drivers leading the rally I think – [Didier] Auriol, [Juha] Kankkunen, Colin, Malcolm [Wilson] and me.
“We all had some problems where we lost time, we had punctures – I had two punctures I think. There was only a little bit of snow, so we were all hitting stones and getting punctures. Colin I think had a broken driveshaft at some point also.
“I remember the last day it was really close with everyone, it was only [28 seconds between the top four] starting the last leg. So it was really good for me to be in that battle. It was a great feeling to beat those big boys, especially a big privilege to beat my team-mate Kankkunen!
“And there were no team orders at Toyota. I was only driving that [one WRC] rally, but it was great to have that. Juha and Colin were in a big fight going into the last stage of the rally (McRae led Kankkunen by 4s), so there was no chance for team orders. I was safe!”
With #1 on the door, Jonsson headed a close fight to win again in 1993
Even 31 years on, the memories of beating the world’s best on the Swedish snow are still fresh in Jonsson’s mind. And although he has competed in rallies on all kinds of surfaces and all over the world during his career, it was always on the snow where the Swede got his biggest thrills.
“A really good winter road, that is the best road you can drive on,” Jonsson confirms with a chuckle. “When the conditions are perfect and you can use the snow banks a little bit to carry the speed, that is the best driving experience.
“After that of course it’s gravel, and I was not built for Tarmac!” he adds.
Jonsson’s two consecutive Rally Sweden victories in the early ’90s turned out to be the peak of his WRC career.
Stints with Mazda, Subaru, Opel and as a privateer with Ford followed, but none of those efforts yielded podium finishes, although he’d continue to dominate Swedish national rallying throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
But in 2007, the two-time Rally Sweden winner got the chance to make his swansong on the event which defined his WRC career.
“It was a chance to get one more start,” says Jonsson. “I rented an ‘01 Focus and I had a little bit of sponsorship, so I had a chance to do it, and of course it’s always fun to do that rally at home.
“Really you have to have an up-to-date car to have a chance, and we had some problems with the car also, so we had to retire and come back under superally one time. But it was nice to do another rally at home.”
Jonsson's outdated Focus was no match for Marcus Grönholm's latest model on the Swede's 2007 swansong
While 2007 marked the end of Jonsson’s WRC career, it wasn’t quite the end of his Rally Sweden story. Still driving at the age of 66, Jonsson now competes in Rally Sweden Historic, which runs across the WRC weekend. The passion is still alive, and last year, Jonsson brought a very special car back into the Rally Sweden spotlight.
“I started running my Toyota [Celica GT-4 ST165] on the historic rally last year and there was a lot of interest,” he says. “We had an engine issue on the second stage, so that was not so good. I hope for better luck this year!”
The 2024 historic rally runs between Rally Sweden’s two loops of stages on Friday and Saturday, with 26 cars entered. If you’re in Umeå this weekend, look out for the red and white Celica – it’s the one with the huddle of people around it.
“The car is identical to the 1992 winning car I had,” confirms Jonsson. “It’s not the actual car but it’s exactly the same specification. It’s painted the same also.
“That was the best memory I had, so I had to get it.”
