SM -Itäralli on the 13th of June 2015

One week after the big crash with Antton it was time to head to Joensuu with Jari and BMW M3. It’s always nice to go back to Joensuu where I grew up. You know the city and the stages are really nice. No luck and luck in Joensuu. We had to retire on the second stage since rear suspension mounting broke off from the chassis and the codriver’s side rear wheel was pointing outside in 45 degree angle. The part where we got lucky was that Jari managed to keep the car on the road with good reflexes and the problem wasn’t big to fix. I was feeling a bit sore here and there after the previous week’s crash so I was really happy that I didn’t have to test how it feels to crash again. Sad that we had to retire especially so early. I always love to rally on the roads in the Eastern part of Finland.

BMW with four wheel steering

2015 season

"Life is meant to be lived sideways" - Dalai Lala. Of course it was Ari Vatanen who said that, but would be cool if the spiritual leader of Tibet would have said that.

So no more 4wd for Jari and me next season for two reasons. 1) Money. It's really expensive to run a 4wd car. Hardly a surprise for anyone. 2) Finnish national homologation for 2015. What is that? It means that it's now possible to apply for a homologation for a car that fits inside the technical rules of the class where it will compete. No special limited edition models so has to have 4 seats originally and a production run minimum 2500pcs.

Mitsubishi was sold and as a trade in Jari took a BMW M3 E36. A familiar car for Jari since he used to drive one before switching to 4wd. We'll be driving the car in the season start Arctic Lapland Rally on the 23-24 of January. The 50th anniversary rally and 290km of special stages. That's about the same as WRC rally Finland. Except no stage is run twice and the longest is 50km long. One thing is for sure. There is going to be some nice slides when the rear tyres search for grip on the snow and ice.

BMW M3

After the first rally there is hope that we'll be running an all new car in Finnish rallies. Jari is building a BMW 125 coupe (E82) and thus utilizing the possibility of national homologation.. That's going to be a beautiful car. I'm pretty sure it will also provide some nice slides for the spectators.

BMW 125 coupe. By the way notice the new blue colour scheme for next season

Vetomies -rally 3rd of August, Jyväskylä

Neste Rally Finland, The Finnish Grand Prix. So what does Vetomieshave to do with it? During some of the years there has been an extra class after the Neste Rally cars. In that class the competitors drive with Finnish 2wd group F cars which have outdated homologation.For example BMW M3, Toyota Corolla GT, Opel Astra, Ford Escortetc etc. This year we participated to the class with my brother Mikkoin his BMW M3. Jari also took part with his brother in their M3. In the middle of Finnish rally championship this was an opportunity to just enjoy the rallying how it’ meant to be done. Sideways :) TheVetomies –rally was done on Saturday and we drove stages Surkee,Leustu, Ouninpohja and Painaa after the big boys had done the stages for the first time. It was really great to be part of the WRC round  atmosphere. Since we haven’t done that many rallies with my brother anymore I was really looking forward to doing one rally with him. Just like back in the day. A BMW, Mikko driving and me co-driving.

The recce was one weekend on a Saturday. Actually a couple of days earlier than even the WRC guys get to do the recce. Maybe the organizers didn’t want them to be in our way during the recce :D We managed to make good pace notes even though Mikko hasn’t done notes in a long time and usually doesn’t do pace note rallies.

Next Friday it was time to get back to Jyväskylä. To kill the time me, Mikko and a couple of our friends went to see Lankamaa stage. After the stage me and Mikko headed towards Kangasniemi to spend thenight. Next morning it was all rally glamour. Wake up at 5am and on the road around 5h45. 

Around 7am we were ready at Paviljonki for paper check and scrutineering. The whole atmosphere was really relaxed since probably 90% of the crews were there just to enjoy themselves.

The Vetomies rally usually has a really high retiring rate and that was wise to keep in mind. Around 11am it was our time to head towards the stages. The Surkee stage was familiar to me from last year. The stage was luckily in quite good shape after the WRC guys. We took it steadily trying not to damage the car. Mikko was also learning how to concentrate on listening to the pace notes. Our tactic was to avoid any damage to the car so that we could enjoy the famousOuninpohja stage. After Surkee we continued through Leustu with the same strategy. One of the Leustu junctions was so soft that we almost got stuck with the heavy rwd BMW.

After Leustu there was a short service break on a road section. We checked the car and didn’t even change the tyres. No fluids or anything needed either. Everything was OK and we just ate and drank a little bit to keep energy levels up. We hadn't even expected any problems. Mikko's trusted mechanic Teuvo was enjoying the rally as a spectator and our dad was the only mechanic we had with us. Even a couple of spectators came to the car laughing and commenting that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the car since everybody is just talking bs and eating. The Ouninpohja stage started very well. Mikko had better gotten used listening the pace notes and since the stage was in great condition he could push the car without having to worry about it getting broken.

When reaching the famous Kakaristo junction after over 20km we were inside the top ten according to the gps tracker that was installed inside all the cars. About 700m everything went wrong. The organizers had built a jump for Tommi Mäkinen’s VIP people and we landed heavily nose first. Several cars broke in that artificial jump and we were no exception. The landing had damaged our oil cooler which had ripped of the radiator from its mountings. About 3km after the jump on the so called Ouninpohja small road our engine seized. End of our rally. 

Unfortunately we also had to wait for several hours for the WRC guys to drive the stage for the second time. The organizers driving through the stage were really cool and stopped at our spot to ask if we were alright and if we needed anything. Even though we had drinking water the supplied us a couple of liters more. A big thank you for that for those guys. Very friendly. Our car wasn’t blocking the road, but it was on the outside corner where the WRC cars would throw a lot of stones. We tried to clean all the bigger stones after a car had passed, but unfortunately Kris Meeke dropped the driver’s side window with one stone. Kris himself wasn’t too lucky either crashing his car about 3km later. A shame since we was driving a great rally with a factory Citroën. Even though we didn’t finish the rally and broke the BMW’s engine we were quite happy. The setup of the car is pretty much spot on and since the Ouninpohja had gone so well the broken engine isn’t the end of the world.

Kaakkoisralli 15th of October 2011

Final rally of my 2011 season. But finally the first rally for my brother's BMW M3! I have been looking forward to sit in it and find out what the M3 is like. The word out on the street is that the M3 has power...

The Kaakkoisralli in Hamina was the only rally that we could even think of so late into the season since it was relatively close to Joensuu. Only 300km or so from Joensuu. We wanted to test the car before the first rallies in 2012 so that we would have even some kind of idea how it handled and if we would have any small technical problems to solve.

Picture: Kaj Lindberg

After the normal routines in the rally center we headed towards the first stage. The start was a welcome surprise since the organizer had managed to locate it on tarmac. Eliminates nicely the deep struts. For the M3 the first stage wasn't the optimal however. Most of the stage was driven on a small road and the M3 was suffering from lack of grip. We didn't draw any conclusions just based on that stage.

On  the second stage we got to drive on a faster road. The crew also managed to get to a "rally feeling". Have to say that an M3 really has to power to go even on a bigger gear. The car just keeps on accelerating even on  5th gear. The downside of a big car is that it doesn't stop or turn like some of the lighter ones. Can't complain though, it's just so fun when you've got enough power under the pedal. The suspension felt too hard on a faster road so that we have to soften in the future. After the second stage it was time to head for the first service. The plan was to change different tires to the rear and see how the traction would change. If it would change at all. In the service our mechanic Teuvo switched the tires and that was pretty much that. The aim is not having to repair the car during the rally. Cars should last for 70km without major repairs. In the end of the service we decided to change one front tyre also. It was leaking air and a minor detail like that would have been fun to notice on the following road section. After the service there was a refuel possibility, but we had enough petrol in the M3's tank for the following two stages. In this rally the aim was not to optimize car weight so that's why the extra petrol. Any opinions about the third stage? What a great stage! 19km long stage on a fast road and easy to look a head so that you didn't have to on your guard all the time guessing where the stage would turn. The stage was just like the ones you were dreaming about before starting rallying at all. I'm sure the crowds like it too since the BMW was all the time sideways in some direction. Some of the people on the outside banks of corners must have gotten " a few" rocks flying at them. At the time control after the stage we complimented the stage to the officials. They said that nobody had complained so far... The fourth stage was also a nice one. Had fun and no complaints.

Picture: Niina Hakulinen

After the fourth stage to the service again. This time we had to refuel. After all the M3 isn't some diesel with a 3,9L/100km fuel consumption. What it looses on the fuel consumption side it more than compensates on being that much more fun to drive around. For the last stage we decided to adjust our tactics a little bit. This time we wouldn't drive on the safe side. We were going to drive like little old ladies. On the hindsight a good decision since there were some nasty places on the last stage. Last thing we wanted to do on the first rally is to crash the car. According to the stopwatch we lost a decade, but that was to be expected since we were driving through the stages without any risks. A little bit of training and setting up the suspension should equal to a decent gentleman rally driver pace.