DirtFish Rally School's chief instructor is competing in Scandinavia for the first time this weekend
Photography by Josh Sikora/DirtFish
Words by Luke Barry
It’s easy to be fixated by it.
The never-say-die attitude. The rolling crests and sweeping bends. The sheer passion for going fast sideways.
It’s fitting that the opportunity should have been discussed while standing on a frozen lake – how very Swedish.
“Working with Patrik [Sandell] at our winter driving experience, Ice Driving USA, ages ago, he was like, ‘Hey, I owe you! You should come to Sweden and drive my car.’ And then COVID happened,” explains Nate Tennis, chief instructor at DirtFish.
“So that put an immediate pause to all the action. And I thought, ‘well, there went that awesome dream’. But then we rekindled the winter experience, and Patrik was like, ‘Hey, the offer still stands if you can get yourself over there!'”
The offer was to compete in a rally sprint this weekend in Sweden using Patrik’s Volvo 940, and suffice to say Nate is on his way to Östersund despite an early travel hiccup – the messages to Saints Toivonen, Wåldegard and Carlsson clearly worked!
“This will be one of the few times I’ve been to Europe, period, my first time to Scandinavia and first time we’re rallying outside the US,” Nate says.
“To do it in basically what amounts to the mecca of rallying and for Swedish car guys who are into rallying is just incredible. I can’t wait.”
Nate’s a Saab guy at heart, but Swedish cars in general have always appealed.
“They were very affordable at the time when I started racing them and they didn’t require a lot of prep,” he recalls. “So we could bang together a car in a couple of weeks and it would be ready to rally on week three – without a lot of the fancy stuff that you have to do to a lot of other cars.
“And then they ended up being quick. They were well balanced… actually, that should be predictably balanced. How about that?!” he laughs. “And so they were tough, reasonably affordable and then it became my conduit where I could pour my passion into something that I could actually, kind of, afford.”
At least Nate is familiar with Volvo 940s from contesting ARA rallies
This week Nate will continue that story but in the car’s natural habit, with Linnea Sandell (Patrik’s wife and fellow contributor to Ice Driving USA) calling the notes for him.
“The competitor in me wants to think that I’ll be competitive, but I highly, highly doubt that,” he smiles.
“Personally, I like to be someone who can jump into something and be reasonably quick in a short amount of time, so I’m hoping to kind of do that as well. But also, the reality is this one might be a little bit tricky, so I won’t be going for a win, but I’ll certainly be doing my best not to stick around!
“But I think just to be there and experience it and be able to drive those roads and be in that environment is going to be really special.”
Nate will spend some time in Sweden after the event too to soak up the atmosphere and indulge in some non-competitive rallying culture.
“I see myself as a passionate rally nerd who’s going over to experience what it’s like in another country,” he reflects. “And so I’m extremely grateful that I have neat friends and the ability to continue doing this.
“We get opportunities a lot in our business and a lot of times it’s like, ‘wow, that would be really cool to do that’, but it never happens. And so to carve out the time to go do this was obviously difficult when we’re quite busy at the Rally School, but I am unbelievably thankful that I can.”
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: DirtFish Rally School, Ice Driving USA, Nate Tennis, Patrik Sandell
Publish Date August 15, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/08/pCWmzbBI-AB5I0339-780x520.jpg August 15, 2025
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