Talotekniikka10 ralli 15th of September 2012, Kerava

What a fantastic rally! We were fighting for second place in the Finnish 2wd championship, bu that wasn't meant to be. The stages were mostly really fast and there was no hope of fighting against more powerful Civic type-r of Ville Hautamäki. That became very clear after two first stages.

Picture by Marko Mäkinen, official pictures of Finnish Rally Championship

That didn't spoil the day though. We had an excellent battle in our class with Joonas Lindroos' C2 R2 and Jukka Korhonen's Fiesta R2. All three were inside few seconds on every stage. For example on sixth stage only two tenths of a second separated us and Lindroos. On the next one all three drove exactly the same time! Not even a tenth of a second separating the cars. We weren't fighting for championship points, just for bragging rights so it was good fun. Of course we had to finish the rally with Andreas. But on the other hand it's easier to drive fast than just cruise around. So after a lot of fast driving we finished third in our class and sixth overall among 2wd cars. That meant we finished third in the championship. Can't complain and have to be really happy about the result. There were seven rallies in the championship and none of the top three cars retired even once. Our lowest class result was fourth with two wins, three second places and one third place. With those results I can just look back and say that it was a good season! And of course not forgetting the biggest adventure of the year -> our WRC round Neste Oil Rally Finland. For a first timer it was a dream come true to be on the legendary stages. Especially when we had trouble free rally and a great result.

Only constant in life is change and that goes for rallying also. Have to write something about next season when year 2013 is nearer. Before that there is still one more training weekend at the Vierumäki sports center. So saying hi to the now already familiar rowing machine. Good fun if you are into masochistic stuff :) But before that still one more rally. Co-driving for my brother in his M3. Let the gravel fly!