Career highlights


2011 IRC Champion with Andreas Mikkelsen – ŠKODA UK Motorsport Fabia S2000

           1st Rally of Cyprus

           1st Rally of Scotland


2010 1st S-WRC / 10th overall, Wales Rally GB (Škoda Fabia S2000)

1st Love Cyprus Golden Stage Rally

2nd RACMSA Rally of Scotland

5th Barum Czech Rally Zlín

4th Sata Rally Açores

5th Geko Ypres Rally

2nd S-WRC / 11th overall, Swedish Rally


2009 1st Group N Norwegian Rally Championship

1st Subaru Cup

1st Rally Costa Brava

            3rd Rally Bohemia, Czech Republic (Škoda Fabia S2000)


2008 Contested 7 rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship – Sweden, Sardinia, Turkey, Finland, Germany, Spain and Corsica

5th overall, Swedish Rally

Special stage win Rallye Deutschland

8th Rally de España

1st Rally Finnskog

1st Rally Numedal


2007 Contested 8 rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship – Norway, Portugal, Finland, Germany, Spain, Corsica, Ireland and GB

Irish Tarmac Rally Championship rounds – including 3rd on the UAC Easter Int Rally and Int. Rally of the Lakes and 5th on the Manx Int Rally


2006 1st Quinton Stages, Coracle, Plains, Bulldog and Cambrian Rallies (UK)

1st Saaremaa Rally (Estonia)

Wales Rally GB with Andreas Mikkelsen

Dakar Rally with Raphael Sperrer


2005    Austrian Championship with David Doppelreiter (Škoda WRC)

Started training with Andreas Mikkelsen in Norway and UK


2004    Accident on Rally Sweden with Kristian Kollberg (Hyundai WRC)
            prevented full co-driving season


2003    3rd in Asia-Pacific Rally Championship with David Doppelreiter

FIA Production Car World Rally Championship with Patrik Richard


2002    FIA Production Car World Rally Championship with Bernt Kollevold

FIA Junior-World Rally Championship with David Doppelreiter


2000Scandinavia rallies with Martin Stenshorne

14th Rally GB with Henning Solberg


1999-

1996Norwegian and Swedish Rally Championships with Morten Østberg



Profile


Ola Fløene is one of Norway’s most experienced co-drivers, and has developed a pace note system that is used by some notable countrymen – namely, Petter Solberg, Henning Solberg and Andreas Mikkelsen.


Born into a skiing family in Hamar, a town located on the shores of Lake Mjøsa, Norway's largest lake, Ola began competing in motocross at the age of 12. His parents didn’t approve, so with the help of his grandfather, he continued competing with some success until he was 20 – before turning his hand to co-driving.


It was just for fun at first, but by 1996 he was co-driving for Morten Østberg (Mads’ father) in the Norwegian and Swedish Rally Championships in a Prodrive-built Subaru. Unfortunately for them, the next three years coincided with brothers Petter and Henning Solberg doing the same rallies, and after some big battles Ola’s best result was runner-up in the series.


By 2000, Ola was keen to contest some new events and broaden his experience, but he was lucky to survive two huge accidents with Martin Stenshorne. The first was on a winter rally when they hit a tree side on, and only the fact that the tree was frozen like glass and snapped on impact saved Ola from more serious injuries.


He wasn’t so fortunate when they rolled in fifth gear on a summer rally later the same year. The car landed hard on a large rock, pushing the floor up underneath Ola’s seat and breaking his back in the process.


Ola decided the only break he wanted now was from rallying itself, and he became Sales Manager for Audi Norway. He was working in his office one day when Petter Solberg invited himself in and said, ’Ola, what the hell are you doing here? Why don’t you come rallying again?’


Unable to find a good excuse not to, Ola returned to the co-driver’s seat with Henning Solberg on the 2000 Rally GB – where they finished 14th overall in a Toyola Corolla. They started the 2001 season together, but crashed out of Rally Sweden and by the time Rally Portugal had arrived they had decided they would stay friends outside the rally car, but never sit in one together again!


In 2002, Ola began co-driving for up and coming young Austrian driver David Doppelreiter in the FIA Junior-World Rally Championship (a talented driver Ola has a huge amount of respect for) and for Bernt Kollevold in the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship. The busy schedule continued the following year when he and Doppelreiter finished 3rd in the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, while Ola also partnered Patrik Richard in the P-WRC.


Co-driving had become a full time occupation for Ola, but another massive accident at the beginning of 2004 put that into jeopardy. Unseasonably warm weather had made the Swedish Rally very fast, and whilst travelling flat-out in sixth gear the Hyundai WRC he was sharing with Kristian Kollberg hit a snow bank and was catapulted into the adjacent forest. The next thing Ola remembers is a medical rescue helicopter hovering overhead and he was ordered to stay in bed for the next four weeks.


Fully recovered, in 2005 Ola co-drove for Doppelreiter in the Austrian Rally Championship and small events in Norway. The year ended with the Dakar Rally, when Ola co-drove for Austrian driver Raphael Sperrer across the Sahara. It was a great adventure, but the duo were robbed of a worthy finish when mechanical problems stopped them in Senegal, just one and a half days before the finish.


In March 2006, Henning Solberg asked Ola to go testing, but when he arrived at the venue it became clear that Henning wasn’t doing the driving. Instead, a 16-year old Mikkelsen was about to climb into a Ford Focus WRC, with an empty co-drivers seat waiting for Ola to fill. When Ola discovered that Andreas had only been driving for two months, he wasn’t too keen to sit in. “I looked at Henning as said, ‘are you trying to kill me’,” recalls Ola.


Since that day, Ola and Andreas have been inseparable – devoting all their time to making it to the top of rallying.


With Andreas too young to drive on the public highway, 2006 was spent training and preparing for his competition debut. Ola had developed a fantastic pace note system with Doppelreiter, and that system had been fine tuned by the Solberg brothers. It’s this that Andreas’ pace note system is now based on – identical to what Ola used with Doppelreiter, albeit in Norwegian, rather than in English.



Andreas has broken many records for being the youngest winner of a British national rally (on the 2006 Quinton Stages Rally), the youngest WRC points scorer (5th overall on the 2008 Swedish Rally), the youngest driver to set a WRC special stage win (on the 2008 Rallye Deutschland) and the youngest driver to win a round of the Norwegian Rally Championship outright (on the 2008 Rally Finnskog). Ola has been with him every inch of the way and it’s his professionalism in the co-driver’s seat that has helped give Andreas the confidence to show his true potential at such an early stage of his career.


Their performance on the 2010 Wales Rally GB, where they won the S-WRC category by over six minutes and finished 10th overall on their first gravel rally in a Škoda Fabia S2000, shows what a great partnership Ola and Andreas is.


In 2011, Ola will contest the Intercontinental Rally Challenge in a Škoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000, co-driving for Andreas Mikkelsen.


Andreas Mikkelsen Date of birth: 22 June 1989 Place of birth: Oslo, Norway Lives: Oslo, Norway Status: Single Rally debut: 2006 Hobbies: Motocross, fishing, mountain biking Career highlights 2011 IRC Champion – ŠKODA UK Motorsport Fabia S2000 1st Rally of Cyprus 1st Rally of Scotland 2010 1st S-WRC / 10th overall, Wales Rally GB (Škoda Fabia S2000) 1st Love Cyprus Golden Stage Rally 2nd RACMSA Rally of Scotland 5th Barum Czech Rally Zlín 4th Sata Rally Açores 5th Geko Ypres Rally 2nd S-WRC / 11th overall, Swedish Rally 2009 1st Group N Norwegian Rally Championship 1st Subaru Cup 1st Rally Costa Brava 3rd Rally Bohemia, Czech Republic (Škoda Fabia S2000) 2008 Contested 7 rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship – Sweden, Sardinia, Turkey, Finland, Germany, Spain and Corsica 5th overall, Swedish Rally (youngest WRC points scorer) Special stage win Rallye Deutschland (youngest WRC stage winner) 8th Rally de España 1st Rally Finnskog (youngest winner of a Norwegian Rally 
 Championship event) 1st Rally Numedal 2007 Contested 8 rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship – Norway, Portugal, Finland, Germany, Spain, Corsica, Ireland and GB Irish Tarmac Rally Championship rounds – including 3rd on the UAC Easter Int Rally and Int. Rally of the Lakes and 5th on the Manx Int Rally 2006 1st Quinton Stages, Coracle, Plains, Bulldog and Cambrian Rallies (UK) 1st Saaremaa Rally (Estonia) WRC debut – Wales Rally GB 2005 Driver training Profile Andreas Mikkelsen holds the records for being the youngest driver to win a British national rally, score FIA World Rally Championship points and set a fastest stage time on a WRC event. In 2011 he celebrates his 22nd birthday, but he’s already driving rally cars for six years. The young Norwegian has a broad background in sport. He competed in all disciplines in skiing and was a member of the Norwegian national junior alpine skiing team at the age of 12. In 2003 and 2004, he competed in motocross, also representing the national junior team. A knee injury curtailed a promising ski career, and at 16-years old Andreas turned his attention to rallying. Too young to complete, he dedicated his time to learning the art of making and using pace notes with his co-driver Ola Fløene and begin rally driver training in 2005 – at the wheel of the Focus WRC! Ola is a vastly experienced co-driver who had developed a detailed pace note system that is used by the 2003 World Rally Champion, and fellow countryman, Petter Solberg. This tried and tested system was the foundation of Andreas’ pace note training, and it’s the same system that he employs today. There was still the not too insignificant matter of legally being able to drive on the public highway, and while in Norway you have to be at least 18-years old to attempt your driving test, in the UK the minimum age is 17. Without hesitation, Andreas moved to England and passed his driving test just a few days after his 17th birthday, and followed this by taking part in, and winning, the 2006 Quinton Stages Rally. Aged just 17 years and 16 days, he became the youngest ever winner of a British national rally. He also won the Coracle, Plains, Bulldog and Cambrian rallies in the UK in 2006, as well as the Saaremaa Rally in Estonia, and made his WRC debut on Wales Rally GB the same year. In 2007 Andreas contested eight rounds of the WRC in a Focus WRC, scoring three top 10 finishes – 9th in Ireland and 10th in Norway and Portugal – and finishing 12th on Rally Finland. You couldn’t fault his commitment, as a spectacular televised crash on Epynt during Wales Rally GB testifies. He also contested rounds of 2007 Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, finishing 3rd on the UAC Easter International Rally and International Rally of the Lakes and 5th on the Manx International Rally on the Isle of Man. It was during the 2007 WRC season that Andreas got to know Marcus Grönholm. They got on well and when the double World Rally Champion announced his retirement at the end of the year, Andreas asked Grönholm if he’d consider using some of his new-found spare time to help him develop his driving technique. During 2008, Grönholm drove, and sat next to, Andreas many times, teaching him the rally driving skills that took him to the world title in 2000 and 2002. Andreas took everything on board and there is a marked contrast in his driving style during this period. It certainly helped with his results too, as Andreas become the youngest driver to ever score FIA World Rally Championship points when, aged 17 years and 233 days, he finished 5th on the 2008 Swedish Rally. Six months later, aged 18 years and 190 days, Andreas became the youngest driver to record a fastest special stage time on a round of the WRC, when he set joint fastest time (with Petter Solberg and Sébastien Loeb) on the final stage of Rallye Deutschland. He also finished 8th overall on the Rally de España, scoring more WRC points. Also in 2008, Andreas won the Rally Finnskog (and in doing so became the youngest ever winner of a Norwegian Rally Championship event) and Rally Numedal. The global financial recession put the brakes on Andreas’ rallying career. Having contested 15 rounds of the WRC in a Focus WRC in the last two years, scoring points and building up extensive experience, he was to contest just one WRC event over the next two years. Erik Veiby, who as chairman of the Rally Norway board had been so instrumental in bringing the WRC to Norway, asked Andreas’ father if he could help, and so began a new partnership where Erik looks after Andreas’ rally interests. As manager, Erik was aware of the slight jealousy some felt towards Andreas’ ability to drive a Focus WRC at such a young age, but Erik could only see his talent. It was time to put Andreas head-to-head with is adversaries in identical cars. It was a brilliant plan. In 2009, Andreas became Group N Norwegian Rally Champion, he dominated the Subaru Cup and scored outright victory on the Rally Costa Brava in Spain – silencing his critics and gaining even more fans with his skill, honesty and sportsmanship. His only WRC event that year, in a Škoda Fabia WRC owned by Erik, ended prematurely with engine problems on Rally Poland. There was some Škoda joy that year, when Andreas finished 3rd on Rally Bohemia in the Czech Republic, driving a Fabia S2000. Having finished 2nd in S-WRC and 11th overall on the Swedish Rally, Andreas gained important IRC experience by contesting seven rounds of the series later in 2010, finishing in the points on four occasions. He came a close second to Juho Hänninen (Škoda) on the RACMSA Rally of Scotland, and won the inaugural Love Cyprus Golden Stage Rally in a Hankook-backed Ford Fiesta S2000. Having rallied a Škoda Rally Team Italia Fabia S2000 on the Rallye de France (Round 11 of the 2010 WRC) Andreas took the car to a sensational S-WRC victory on Wales Rally GB, finishing 10th overall on the final round of the WRC. He ended a successful 2010 by winning the WRC class on the Solberg Extreme MotorShow in Oslo and the Super 2000 class at the Bologna Rallysprint, which was part of the Bologna Motor Show. In 2011, Andreas will contest the Intercontinental Rally Challenge in a Škoda UK Motorsport Fabia S2000, co-driven by Ola Fløene.

Ola Fløene


Date of birth: 1 February 1969

Place of birth: Hamar, Norway

Lives: Hamar and Brumunddal, Norway

Status: Single

Rally debut: 1989

Hobbies: Motocross, mountain biking