Neste Oil Rally Finland 2011

No I wasn't participating. Only watching. Of course I would have liked to participate, but maybe that day will come. However I had a interesting few days watching cars etc.

My rally trip started already one day before the stages on Wednesday. University of Jyväskylä held a seminar Promoting Driver Performance. Topics included Risto Mannisenmäki (Tommi Mäkinen's ex co-driver) talking about AKK Driving Academy - Rally coaching in Finland, Robert Reid (Richard Burns' ex co-driver) talking about Comprehensive Motorsport Coaching - Limitations of a top driver. Other topics ranged from dividing attention between driving and secondary actions to topics like emotional attributes of Finnish motorsport athletes and how to train psychological skills. All in all I enjoyed the seminar a lot since it gave a some different angles to rallying that you don't normally come across when talking about rallying with other enthusiasts. At least in Finland you don't normally start a conversation with another rally driver/co-driver by asking that has he/she been doing any mental exercises during the rally weekend.

Spectating the stages started on Thursday. There were only three stages scheduled for Thursday evening and we chose to go to the second one Laukaa. The Finnish police were out on the roads on force like normal to show everybody that they are there and despite traffic jams everybody should keep driving by the book. In Laukaa we didn't have too good spectating position since we chose to go to a field where there were a couple of hundred other people also. You could see the cars for a long time, but not a place where anything interesting would happen. Really positive surprise was the excellent pace of Jari Ketomaa with the WRC Ford. Everybody expected him to be quick, but we was driving fastest times during Thursday before having to slow down so that he wouldn't have to be first on the road on Friday. Sad news for Finns was that Mikko Hirvonen hit a tree on Thursday and even though he didn't retire the fight for victory ended then and there. On Thursday we watched almost all the cars, before driving to Mikkeli to my friend's place for the night.

On Friday we drove from Mikkeli to Lahti area. We decided to go to special stage 6/9 Hyväneula since we got a tip from one Finnish rally driver that there is one right hand corner after a crest which has had "off roading" whenever the road has been used as a special stage. The corner turned out to be a good spectating position. There was a hill on the outside corner we people could position easily so that everyone can see. The first cars drove nicely through the bend like expected. After that there began to be a lot of loose gravel outside the optimal driving line. PG Anderson had a close call with Tommi Mäkinen Racing's Subaru when he missed the line a bit and had to floor the throttle  and throw the car sideways on the loose gravel to get through the bend. Same thing happened also to Prokop with his S2000 Ford. The struts were really deep for cars coming later and the bend started to loose it's interest. We chose to move to special stage Koukunmaa. Later I saw from youtube that Latvala had a big moment in the bend because the struts had thrown him of the line and on privateer WC Mini also went off. Aftermath you can say that maybe we shouldn't have moved to another stage after all.

In Koukunmaa we had a really quiet spectating place after some field on a right hand corner. No action to be expected since there wasn't anything surprising in the corner. Just your average right hand corner that narrowed a little bit. The most interesting part on Friday was to listen to the rally radio and follow special stage results from wrc.com. Ketomaa unfortunately went off so that ended his big surprise. Matti Rantanen also went off with his Mini WRC. I was a bit surprised about that since he has had good results in Finland and I haven't qualified him as the type of driver who crashes a lot. Luckily the driver and co-driver were OK since he went off in a high speed corner. On the positive side Mikko Pajunen showed spectacular pace with a Renaul Clio R3 against the Mitsubishi Evos and Subaru Imprezas in the PWRC class. He was running second in class after Friday with a n/a engined 2wd car. One class below Esapekka Lappi (C2 R2) and Jukka Korhonen (Fiesta R2) had a great battle against each other which Lappi finally won on Saturday. Both also showed their pace against the WRC Academy's Fiesta R2 drivers by leaving them trailing way behind.

Not showing 100% commitment we ended our rally trip already on Friday since we didn't want to drive back north to Jyväskylä for Saturdays stages and then back south to Helsinki after the rally. I followed the Saturday's stages from the internet. Loeb deserved his victory this year, but let's hope there will be a Finn setting the pace next year.

Trusted co-drivers

In rallying the relationship between a driver and a co-driver is quite unique in motorsports. Both have to trust each to get a maximum result from the rally. In many cases the crews race together for several years. In my opinion that's because it takes time to build trust and to learn each others habits. Of course when you get along well in the car why would you change the guy sitting next to you.

Even though co-drivers are the less known compared to the driver there are well known co-drivers who appear again and again in the cars next to the drivers who want to really be competitive in their class. At some level the good drivers expect the co-drivers to be more or less professionals with the tasks related to co-driving and since many crews stay together for years it's sometimes hard to find good co-drivers without a seat. Also other way around the experienced co-drivers have seen enough different drivers to be somewhat selective when it comes to the drivers they are willing to sit next to.

I'll go through some aspects of getting better as a co-driver. Those might affect why the drivers have chosen the particular co-driver and not some bloke who thinks it would be cool to sit in an expensive rally car. Some of the things might seem a bit far fetched, but feel free to ignore them, if you think I've lost my marbles...

Routine. A dangerous word. In the beginning easier said than done. Of course you need a ride first before you can develop a routine in co-driving. When everything isn't new all the time you can fine tune the things you do during recce and special stages. What I meant routine being a dangerous word is that you should always analyze what you are doing and how you do it. It's good to make a mental check from time to time that is there room for improvement. I personally also like to ask from others their opinions. You might not agree with them, but sometimes you pick up things you might never had come across on your own.

Practice. I know. It's so expensive to train with a rally car and get roads for testing. That's not what I meant, but it's great if money and roads aren't a problem for you. Practicing also helps to develop a routine outside rallies. So how can you practice co-driving outside the rally car? For a starters you and your driver can get into a normal road car, find a suitable piece of road that would work as a special stage and start making pace notes. Basically nothing different compared to a recce during the rally and when you make a habit of pace note training it's a lot easier to do the actual recce.

Studying. Applies to all different aspects of rallying. One can learn a lot by sitting by your computer and for example watching incar footage from other competitors and seeing how they drive, what kind of pace notes they use. I'm not a native English speaker so I read car magazines to learn technical vocabulary. Taking a tyre iron into your hand and asking a mechanic to show how to change a tyre. Whatever you think might improve your skills and make you more useful for the team. One thing I've learned is that people like to discuss about subjects close to their hearts. If you want to learn something just find someone who is an enthusiastic and start asking "stupid" questions. If the person isn't willing to share their knowledge just find the next person. People in rallying are usually social and generally nice guys so getting general info about something isn't usually a problem.

Fitness. To some of us in rallying the other passions in life aren't long distance running or iron man competitions. Taking care of yourself  doesn't have to go that far since even simple things help. When you eat choose the healthier option and go for a run a couple of times a week. I have never been passionate for training, but when you start doing it it easily becomes a habit. Nowadays I go for the gym twice a week and go running 2-3 times a week. I don't even regard it as a chore anymore since your body seems to yearn for more. The sport has changed a lot during the last 20 years and do you really see many overweight co-drivers next to the top cars smoking a cigarette and eating a burger. Personally I like to think that if I'm in good physical condition my chances of getting tired later in the day are smaller and I'm more likely to keep a good concentration on the stages.

Social skills. Like it or not, but the co-drivers get to interact a lot with mechanics, organizers, sponsors etc. The driver should be able to concentrate on the driving part as much as possible so the co-driver should be able to tackle other tasks as much as possible. Generally it would help if other people regard you as a stand up person who takes care of his/her end as promised so that they can concentrate on things that are left for them. People have to be able to trust the co-driver.