Thursday 19th January 2012, 12:00

World No.2 Andreas Jonsson admits he didn’t expect engine tuner Carl Blomfeldt to make such a fast impact on his SGP fortunes.

The Canadian wizard, who helped Swedish great Tony Rickardsson become a six-time world champion, joined AJ’s pit crew last winter.

Jonsson has always had the talent to win SGP rounds, but Blomfeldt injected the consistency into the rider’s performances that saw him win three of the final six Grand Prix rounds in 2011.

The Swedish champion will be desperate to take this form into the new season, which gets underway with the FIM New Zealand SGP in Auckland on March 31.

But even the rider admits he was surprised to see such a dramatic transformation in his fortunes.

He said: “When I started to work with Carl, I knew that nothing was going to change in one day. I knew it was going to be a lot of work. My idea was that we would give it two years and see how it went with Carl in the team.

“Things changed really, really quickly. It took half a season and then I started to go well. I’m really happy I saw a big difference in half a season. It was more than I expected at the beginning, to be honest.”

Jonsson admits Blomfeldt has also added some real method to the madness that can be finding a strong setup.

He added: “I can tell you that before I started to work with Carl, the changes we made were maybe not the most intelligent ones. But when we make changes now, we always have some sort of plan.

“We have tried things, but if they didn’t work, we went back to basics again. We’ve taken small steps all the time and it has been the key to what has happened I think.

“I’ve also been a little bit more involved in the bikes and engines and I’ve been really close to Carl. He explains things how he sees them and says how he thinks I could get the bikes working for me.

“It really helps me and I’ve learnt a lot. I’ve been in speedway for many years, but I still have a lot of things to learn.

“The other guys in the team are also thinking a little bit differently and they also enjoy it more with Carl there.

“He’s a really down-to-earth guy and has gained a lot of respect. When he speaks and he comes up with something, you know it’s not just talk and that there’s something behind what he’s saying.”

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