The new race track in Fällfors was inaugurated on June 15, 2019 and they revived the name Midnight Sun Run. In the sixties, some competitions with the same name were run on Falmark's airfield. The new racing circuit is built on another airfield, the former military airfield in Fällfors, 50 km north of Skellefteå.
Neither I nor Bård Bergsjö had the opportunity to attend the inauguration, which is why we decided to visit later in the summer. The day was set for August 12th.
Sunday, August 11th at 09.00, Bård rolled into my entrance in Säffle with a newly acquired Citroën C1 which he had bought for SEK 5000. We started the long journey north up through Värmland and Dalarna before departing east towards Gävle where we joined the E4. We followed the coast north and at 21.00 we arrived at the hotel in Skellefteå. The little car had worked hard, but the journey had gone well without any interruptions.
Both Bård and I woke up early next morning and we were first to breakfast at the hotel. We had 50 km left to the track and we would meet the people there at 09:00. We were ready early and therefore went well in advance. We arrived at the track at 08.30. The track was shrouded in fog and visibility was very limited. We walked around the buildings and first found the staff in the workshop who showed us the way to the office.
Daniel Wikgren was there and he welcomed us and invited us for coffee. He took us on a tour around the course and the surrounding area. Now the fog had started to lighten. It was an impressive sight. The area consisted of three major runways as well as a number of taxi lanes that had been linked to a race track, the longest in Sweden with its 4200 m. Like all other airport circuits, it was very flat on and around the course. Most of the circuit was surrounded by concrete walls, which made it sometimes feel more like a city track than an airfield! The depot was also impressive with 20 large depot boxes.
When we returned from the tour, representatives Kjell Dahlman and Gustav Ulander from Skellefteå Motorsällskap stood waiting for us. We sat in the conference room and went through the plans for our 24-hour competition in 2020. The club's members listened interested and asked some questions. Just before lunch came the representative from the municipality/tourist office; Jenny Hultdin Forslund. We asked her what the municipality could offer to attract long-distance travelers besides the competition itself? She immediately had ideas like salmon fishing in the nearby rivers, meet Sami and reindeer or maybe even go and see the ice hotel? She bubbled with ideas and promised to put together a visitor package that we can offer to all participants.
Me and Bård went a lap on the track to take some advertising pictures, but I thought the car was starting to feel a little spongy? I went out and checked and very correctly I had driven on a screw that had punctured one rear tire. It wasn't completely flat so I could drive back to the workshop on the track which quickly repaired the hole.
We thank you for the pleasant visit which was very rewarding and positive. Now we could go home and continue the planning of the competition. We decided to call the competition "Swedish Lapland 24h". And the race will be run 1-2 of August 2020.
Bengt-Åce Gustavsson - www.racefoto.se
