Anders Grøndal

Anders Grøndal (born 4 March 1984) is a Norwegian rally and hill climb driver. He has won at least 5 gold medals, 3 silver, and 2 bronze at the Norwegian championships. In 2019, he and co-driver Marius Fuglerud won the Rally Tron in the Ford Fiesta MK2.

Grøndal is the third generation rally driver in his family. He grew up with motorsport. His grandfather Nils Fredrik Grøndal and father Stein Grøndal were active rally and rally cross drivers. His uncle Knut Fredrik Grøndal was also a Norwegian hill climb champion.

2002 In 2002, Grøndal and the team visited former works driver John Hauglands Rally School to see what the level was in which they could compete. After doing several tests and John Haugland recognizing the potential Grøndal had, the team decided to buy a Subaru Impreza STi and aim to reach to top of Group N within 3 years, starting in the 2003 season.

2003 The first year of rally for Bilbutikken WRT (Subaru jr Team) with a Subaru Impreza STi built by Rune Dalsjø Rally Team. Henning Elvekrok was the team's first co-driver. Grøndal and Elvekrok won their first Group N victory in Rally Sørland 2003. During the season, Subaru Norway already had Morten Østberg in WRC as their senior team and wanted a young team in their Gr.N Subaru. Elvekrok was therefore replaced with younger co-driver Trond Inge Østbye in the middle of the season. Grøndal took his first championship points in Aurskog Høland Rally 2003. The team ended the season third in the Subaru Cup.

2004 For the 2004 season Bilbutikken WRT (Subaru jr team in 2004) bought their first brand new Subaru Rally car from Prodrive. The N9 car proved to be much quicker than the Norwegian build 2001 car the team used in 2003. Grøndal and Trond Inge won their first overall victory in a non-championship rally called Eidskogsprinten. They also achieved their first fastest stage time in a championship round. In 2004, Grøndal and Trond Inge also did their first WRC round in Sweden.

2005 In 2005 the team got the Subaru Impreza N11 2005 Group N car. It was the first N11 to be built and the car therefore experienced a lot of problems, so the team had to fall back to the N9 car in the beginning of the season. During the season the problems with the N11 car were fixed and Anders achieved his goal of winning a championship round in three 3 years when he won the 2005 Rally Hedemarken. In 2005 they also competed in a few hill climb races achieving a silver medal in the championship.

2006 The team got the Subaru Impreza WRC 2004 SWRT that Petter Solberg used in Monte Carlo and Swedish rally 2005 (WT53 SRT) the car was re-registered to KF81149 when it got to Norway. The team had the best start to the season with overall win in the first Norwegian rally championship round in Mountain Rally. This was Grøndal and Inge's first overall win in the Norwegian championship! The next event was the trial event for WRC Rally Norway. A third place overall in the rally was a good result for the team. The team was in the fight for the title for most of the season, but the young team was to eager and crashed in the final rallies and ended at a disappointing 5th overall.

2007 The 2007 season gave the team 10 total victories. And a podium finish in every other rally they finished. Overall in the Norwegian championship, Grøndal ended up third behind Mads Østberg and Thomas Schie. This was the first year Grøndal did the full hill climb season. It was a great season where Grøndal set hill records in all but one hill. Here, he won its first Norwegian championship gold medal. This was the last year Inge Østbye was co-driving for the team. He was replaced mid-season by earlier Norwegian champion for co-drivers Ragnar Engen and X jr world champion Jonas Anderson.

2008 In the 2008 season, Grøndal crashed his Subaru Impreza WRC in a hill climb rally. The team therefore had to borrow a car from another driver, that car failed with an engine problem in Aurskog, ending all hopes for a championship title.

2009 Grøndal wasn't very lucky in the 2009 rally season, in the first rally they had to retire on the second stage after a miscommunication with the co-driver. At the second rally, the first teams on the track were challenged by a snow blizzard, slowing them down. The 2009 rally season was ended with a 4th position overall. In the hill climb competition, the team had more luck and won all races and ended with the golden medal. Another good victory was the golden medal in the WRC tarmac cup.

2010

During this season for Grøndal when looking at the results: Norwegian champion in Rally and Hill climb, driving 4 PWRC rounds and winning the PWRC stage on tarmac in France.

On a personal level, Grøndal was less lucky when he broke his back during the rally of Stavanger, after he recovered he was 1.5 cm shorter. This was the worst crash in Grøndal's rally career.

2011 In this season he won all Norwegian champion hill climb events, winning all heats in every event for third year in a row and is unbeaten in 46 heats in a row. He won silver in the Norwegian Rally championship, and won three events (Sigdalsrally, Rally Hadeland and Aurskog Høland. Leading PWRC events for the first time in Sweden and Portugal. He won 8 out of 11 stages in Sweden before having to retire with engine failure.

Career results

WRC results Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Points 2004 Anders Grøndal Subaru Impreza STi MON SWE31 MEX NZL CYP GRE TUR ARG FIN GER JPN GBR ITA FRA ESP AUS NC 0 2005 Anders Grøndal Subaru Impreza STi MON SWERet MEX NZL ITA CYP TUR GRE ARG FIN GER GBR JPN FRA ESP AUS NC 0 2006 Anders Grøndal Subaru Impreza WRC 04 MON SWERet MEX ESP FRA ARG ITA GRE GER FIN JPN CYP TUR AUS NZL GBR NC 0 2007 Anders Grøndal Subaru Impreza WRC 04 MON SWE NORRet MEX POR ARG ITA GRE FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN IRE GBR NC 0 2009 Adapta AS Subaru Impreza WRC 08 IRE NOR14 CYP POR ARG ITA GRE POL FIN AUS ESP GBR NC 0 2010 Anders Grøndal Subaru Impreza STi N15 SWE20 NC 0 Anders Grøndal WRC RT Subaru Impreza STi MEX JOR TUR NZL POR BUL FIN24 GER JPN FRA29 ESP GBR39 2011 Bilbutikken AS WRT Subaru Impreza STi SWERet MEX PORRet JOR ITA ARG GRE FIN GER AUS FRA ESP GBR NC 0 2012 Anders Grøndal Subaru Impreza STi MON SWE22 MEX POR ARG GRE NZL FIN GER GBR FRA ITA ESP NC 0 2013 Anders Grøndal Subaru Impreza STi N16 MON SWE11 MEX POR ARG GRE ITA FIN GER AUS FRA ESP GBR NC 0 2014 Anders Grøndal Subaru Impreza STi N16 MON SWERet MEX POR ARG ITA POL FIN GER AUS FRA ESP GBR NC 0 2015 Anders Grøndal Citroën DS3 R5 MON SWE26 MEX ARG PORRet ITA POL FIN15 GER AUS FRA ESP GBR NC 0 2016 Anders Grøndal Ford Fiesta R5 MON SWE13 MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN GER CHN FRA ESP GBR AUS NC 0 2017 Anders Grøndal Ford Fiesta R5 MON SWERet MEX FRA ARG POR ITA POL FIN GER ESP GBR AUS NC 0

PWRC results Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Points 2010 Anders Grøndal Subaru Impreza STi N15 SWE2 7th 40 Anders Grøndal WRC RT Subaru Impreza STi MEX JOR NZL FIN4 GER JPN FRA5 GBR13 2011 Bilbutikken AS WRT Subaru Impreza STi SWERet PORRet ARG FIN AUS ESP GBR NC 0

WRC-2 results Year Entrant Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Points 2013 Anders Grøndal Subaru Impreza STi N16 MON SWE2 MEX POR ARG GRE ITA FIN GER AUS FRA ESP GBR 18th 18 2014 Anders Grøndal Subaru Impreza STi N16 MON SWERet MEX POR ARG ITA POL FIN GER AUS FRA ESP GBR NC 0 2015 Anders Grøndal Citroën DS3 R5 MON SWE10 MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN GER AUS FRA ESP GBR 26th* 1* Season still in progress.