OF UNPAVED ROADS THE CHAMPIONS

Mack Mysing, what does it mean? There is no obvious English translation. Very amicable petrol station perhaps, but aren’t they all. Let’s go on calling it Mack Mysing. But this is not about a petrol station, it is more about its namesake, a very colourful rally team whose members drove in local style wooden clamp shoes. An impressive lunacy on wheels signed Bo ”Mysing” Fredriksson

TEXT BILLY SÖDERIN PHOTO MAY FREDRIKSSON ET AL.

The paintwork, also the most elaborate like this of 1975, were sprayed by Bosse himself. At the time, the team consisted of Karl Göran Hansson, Peter Brorsson, Bruno Johansson and Mysing himself.

Pictures from the hey days in the 70s are mostly of dance bands, rock’n’roll and rally. And the Mack Mysing drivers. The team didn’t always have the fastest cars, but the four drivers did compensate with humour, courage and a heavy right foot. One instance at a home race in Östersund comes to mind. Bosse managed a feat that probably never could be repeated. Speeding to reach the goal in the third and final run of a sprint race, Bosse had the misfortune to somersault, not unusual for anyone brave enough to race in a Saab V4, but this time it was spectacular. Just ahead of the finish line, the car did a full turn over, hitting ground again on all four wheels and continued at undiminished speed but with the rear end first. Bosse immediatly reacted to the new situation, stepped on it in reverse and went straight into the goal and past the photo cells. The 1000- head audience was all excited and screamed louder than ever before. Typically Bosse.

– And you should know that Bosse loved to be as spectacular as possible, his wife May says.

Sadly, Bosse is no longer with us. Very much alive are the memories of him and his daring driving style. In modern terms, he was an influencer and a trade mark of his own, although many in 1972 thought he was utterly mad. Who else would as an aspiring rally driver seek inspiration from the comics ? It was like this; the budding rally team needed a logotype. For some now forgotten reason, a funny figure should be in it. In the comics, Bosse found a figure having an apple in each cheek. It looked funny, so Bosse ripped out the drawing and went to see Torgersson Reklam, the local ad agency in the city of Östersund. When he arrived, the cartoon was lost .He described it to the ad people and they sent him to have funny photos of himself taken. When he was back at the ad agency, one of their illustrators created a logo based on one of the photos.

When he came home, he had second thoughts and was afraid that the others would take him for an egocentric like Mao, May remembers. That didn’t happen.The picture of Bosse with pointing finger and showing his tongue became a trademark. T-shirts with the motif were sold locally in large numbers and

Upper left: ”We must look smart at the start”, Bo said, the team cars must be clean and undented. Paper protecticion on the floor at the pre-race inspections at least did shake up their competitors a bit. Swedish rally 1980 Upper right: The legendary hill climb competition at Hammarstrand was again done in a well run-in twostroker. Only a few years later, the same car was entered in folk racing events. Above: The name Mysing? Wasn’t Bo’s last name Fredriksson? Yes, but when ten years old, Bo was helping out with the horses at a race course. A rider walking into the stable got sight of Bo resting on a bale of oat and asked if he was feeling good, in Swedish being a ”mysing”. The name stuck! – And people still ask my grandmother her name apart from Mysing.

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