The Daily Life of Johan

30/12/2015 by Morgan Carlsson

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Johan wishes everyone a Happy New Year by summing up 2015 and by delivering some memorable and loving New Year’s Awards.

Race of the Year

”That must be the the season opener in Portugal when I won. To be honest I don’t remember much of it. It was more like ’ok, we have the strength to win races’, but as the season went on I realized it wasn’t that easy winning after all. The performance got bigger afterwards.”

Start of the Year

”In Belgium when I had to take the start and passed everyone from the outside. It cannot be done on that track, but everything went perfect – the best start of the year.”

Track of the Year

”I like Barcelona. It has good flow and the tarmac parts are very fast.”

Spectators of the Year

”Must be Höljes. The atmosphere up there cannot be compared with anything else.”

Snow White of the Year

”Timmy Hansen for his ability to be tough to the limit and beyond without being punished for it.”

Happy of the Year

”Andreas Bakkerud is extremely happy. You seldom see him in a bad mood.”

Grumpy of the Year 1

”Jocke Mangs. He has his motto: ’Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing’, but he didn’t get that many victories this year.”

Grumpy of the Year 2

”Robin Larsson, for all the fighting between him and Timmy, but in Argentina he ended up as Happy.”

Doc of the Year

”Erik Veiby. He has a very good ability of taking a step back, overviewing the situation before making smart decisions.”

Dopey of the Year

”Liam Doran - for sure.”

Sneezy of the Year

”That’s ’Lill-Erik’ in our team. He sleeps closest to the air condition in the bus and when we are complaining about the heat he has double blankets and is afraid of catching a cold. He is one of those people taking his long johns off around midsummer.”

Bashful of the Year

”The girl who slept with Olle in the back of our bus in Höljes. In the morning we all had breakfast in the tent waiting for her to come out of the bus. There is only one exit but all of a sudden her shoes as well as herself was gone, without anyone having seen her.”

Sleepy of the Year

”Reinis Nitiss looks very tired when you see him in the paddock in the morning.”

Worst of the Year

”The dust in Argentina. It wasn’t even fun. You were driving like you were blind, still pedal to the metal.”

Semifinal of the Year

”In Barcelona when I was 5.5 seconds faster than Timmy, who won the other semi, even though I was driving with a margin and in full control.”

Heat of the Year

”The fourth round in France. We were way off pace, changing and adjusting without feeling satisfied. In the last heat I gave everything, until my knuckles whitened, and was fastest. It very seldom works overdoing it like that.”

Strangest of the Year

”At Lydden Hill when I was 1.5 seconds off pace in practice and my mechanics asked me what was wrong with the car and I just concluded it was me driving that bad. During the first qualifying heat I decided to copy Tanner Foust’s driving and thereby set the second fastest time.”

Misunderstanding of the Year

”Later that day when I was trying to analyse why we weren’t fast enough and Zandra called to say that her waters had broken. I just said ’ok, we’ll talk later’, without understanding what it really meant.”

Aha moment of the Year

”When I told the others in the team about ’broken waters’ and they said ’but then it’s due very soon’. That was when I understood what it meant…”

Warm-up of the year

”The next morning when I had a phone call from my mother in law, Christina, and she said that I had become a father. I handed over the phone to Olle, put on the gloves on my way out on the track, last of everybody, and set the fastest time.”

Surprise of the Year 1

”Robin Hansson in Carrera Cup. It felt like he came from nowhere.”

Surprise of the Year 2

”Must have been for Mattias Ekström in the last corner in Höljes when he got a Peugeot in his left door. I don’t think he expected that.”

Mistake of the Year 1

”In Barcelona when I missed a corner and drifted out to let Ekström pass on the inside, a mistake just like me and him had been discussing right before. And when he did exactly the same mistake in the semifinal and thereby missed out on the final.”

Mistake of the Year 2

”At Anderstorp when I went off in the qualification.”

Overtakings of the Year

”At Anderstorp when I started last in both races and won. That was a real proof of my strength but I was saved by the rain.”

Sequence of the Year

”In Carrera Cup – no comments needed.”

Thirteenth of the Year.

”PG Andersson. I don’t know how many times he ended up 13th in the qualification, just outside the semifinals. But once he was allowed to go anyway…”

Disappointment of the Year

”In the semifinal in Hell when we were late for start due to an empty battery and were not allowed to go. That was totally useless.”

Defensive driving of the Year

”My driving at Solvalla. I was very attended to by many drivers then.”

Team mates of the Year

”Tord who had to hand over some spare parts to me in Canada and Ole Christian who handed over his spot in the semifinal in Argentina to give me the chance to win the bronze medal.”

Taxi trip of the Year

”In Argentina where all the drivers tried to fool us all the time by making detours around the city. When we were going to a restaurant my father was a typical Swede, easy to fool, so he was taken all around the city instead of just a kilometer. Bart, on the other hand, who is from Poland, was not that easy to cheat on so when my father finally arrived at the restaurant we had great fun.”

Worst trip of the Year

”To Turkey. Our flight time was 1:30 am from Gardermoen so I took one of my father’s ’restless legs’ pills to be able to sleep. He said that you could become a bit sick from those pills and when I woke up after half an hours sleep I felt I had to throw up at once. I made my way to the toilet and dragged out a person there just in time to empty my stomach.”

Worst rented car of the Year

”A Chevrolet Classic in Argentina. We weren’t that impressed. Power windows seems to be as exclusive in Argentina as panorama windows in Europe.”

Best dinner of the year

”When we went from Portugal to Hockenheim and my father decided that we absolutely needed to get through France to be able to have dinner in Germany at a typical ’hole-in-the-wall’ restaurant. Late in the evening when we, totally starving, finally ended up in one of those places we got two giant schnitzels with pommes, on each plate and every bit was eaten during complete silence. And then we ordered the best dessert in the world to round it off in the best possible way.”

And this is how we end the year with The Daily Life of Johan. We’ll be back when things are heating up again. See you! 

 

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