Daniel Carlsson
Sweden (S) |
CAREER
PROFILE1996: Started rallying with Volvo 240
1998: Drives Volvo 1999: Finished 40th in Sweden with Opel on his WRC debut, Drives also with Mitsubishi, Group N Swedish Champion 2000: Drives Toyota 2001: Drives Toyota, 7th in Sweden 2002: Drives Ford and Mitsubishi 2003: Drives Suzuki, 3rd JWRC for Drivers 2004: Drives Peugeot, 5th in Greece 2005: Drives Peugeot
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| Date of Birth: 29/6/1976 at Marital status:
World Drivers' Champion: |
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| Daniel Carlsson
was five years old, when he got his first 50 cc motorbike. From that moment on he has
tortured everything with an engine on the roads back home. When he was fifteen years old
he wanted to get a license to compete in "Folkrace", a form of rallycross with
older cars. In the class there was a part where you had to drive the car around the track.
In the fall of 1996 he entered in a Volvo Cup-car his first ever rally, Rejmerallyt in Örebro, being the fastest driver of all the event. Since then it has been a straight way to success. During the fall of 1997 he changed class from Volvo Cup to the National class. The results from 1998 was second in the Swedish Junior Rally Championhip. When the 1999 season started we had replaced the Volvo with a group H Toyota Corolla. He placed first in the Swedish Rally Championship in Group H and he was second in the Swedish Junior Rally Championhip. In Swedish Rally 2000 he got his first taste of World Rally Car finishing seventh with a Toyota Corolla WRC and he contested also three other rounds of the World Rally Championship´s with the big help from Leif Asterhag. In 2002 Carlsson drove a Ford Puma in the Junior World Rally Championship and he contested the Swedish championship with the Group N Mitsubishi. He also won the Group N in Swedish Rally and in Finland he was in the lead with 17 seconds after five special stages, despite not having any fifth gear. In 203 he contested the Junior World Rally Championship driving a Suzuki Ignis. The two JWRC-wins in Finland and in UK was the highlights of the season and he placed third in the series. In 2004 he tackled seven rounds of the World Championship in a Bozian-prepared Peugeot 206 WRC. Without the active transmission the car was not competitive enoug, but in Greece he was the best placed privateer driver taking the fifth place. In Rally Great Britain he got a one-off drive in a works Peugeot 307 WRC, but accident ended his rally. Already then he had a contract with Peugeot to drive at least eight rounds of the WRC 2005 in a Peugeot´s works team. PSA´s decision to withdraw from the World Rally Championship at the end of 2005 changed the situation and it seems that Carlsson is not able to drive that amount of events. |
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