WRC, Neste Oil Rally Finland 1-4th of August

Secret agent Austin Powers had a "things to do before I die" list in of one the movies. On my list was to one day be able to participate in Finland's WRC event. The rally of the Thousand lakes, the rally of the Thousand tales, Suurajot, Jyskälä. Many names, but everybody knows what the names mean. Well that can now be marked as done. And at the same time got to co-drive through long version (33km) of Ouninpohja. Twice.

But If we start from the beginning. Preparation for "Jyskälä" had been long and Andreas had done a big job of securing sponsors, spare parts, mechanics etc. I helped more on the normal side of team plans, fuel calculations, hotel reservations and so on. The recce from Monday to Wednesday was surprisingly relaxed we had enough time to drive through the stages with some thought and get good pace notes.

The rally really started on Thursday. The not so fun part was to drive 1,5 hours from Jyväskylä to Lahti for three stages. Then back to Jyväskylä. All the cars gathered to Lahti harbour for people to see and hear the drivers being interviewed. My girlfriend was there to see me which was nice.

Posing in Lahti harbour. The shiny blue MIR suit is good for blocking all the sun heat. Picture by Tiina Ketolainen.

From Lahti we drove to the first proper stage Koukunmaa. The first stage didn't go too well for us. We were both quite nervous. In the beginning of the stage I was reading too much forwards and Andreas wasn't driving on the car's limits either. After the stage we got our act together since what was there to be nervous about. More people, but the same Finnish roads as usual.  The next stage was a super special in Lahti horse race track. We managed to drive on a normal rhythm and beat our Norwegian partner. Third and final stage for the day was Mynnilä. It was already 10pm when we started the stage and we even installed extra headlights.

In Mynnilä stage. Picture by "Juha_Koo"

It was good to get a couple of good stages after the first nervous one. After Mynnilä it was time to head back to Jyväskylä and the night service. Luckily we had excellent mechanics in the service so we didn't have to worry about them to check the car and getting it to parc fermé. It was quite late when we finally managed get back to hotel. Around 12.30am or so.

After 5-5,5 hours of sleep it was time to get up and head to breakfast. Normally you would be quite tired with so short sleep, but since you were so exited to continue the rally you didn't even feel that tired. Friday started with Urria and its famous jump. We took the jump carefully and managed to drive a good time for the morning. A good start. Next stage was 22km long Jukojärvi. I personally really enjoyed the stage. As a road it wasn't too fast or too slow. All the time turning somewhere.

Picture by "Jack Bacon"

After Jukojärvi we headed to service. After the service we were to drive first round of stages Mökkiperä, Palsankylä and Lankamaa. Mökkiperä didn't start too well. One of our biggest competitors Jukka Korhonen had gone off into a ditch and that distracted us a little bit. The car didn't block us in any way, but you immediately started to think "what does this mean in the overall results?". Until that point we had been driving stage times which were only few seconds apart. Palsankylä went quite OK. Personally I liked Lankamaa stage a lot. It's a very difficult stage for a driver and a co-driver. At some point it's really fast and then slower. All the time quite narrow. But if you have good pace notes the speeds are in some sections quite respectable.

Entering a junction. Picture by Tiina Ketolainen.

Then back to service and going to Mökkiperä, Palsankylä and Lankamaa for the second time. The roads were rougher, but not too bad since people had been scaring us before the rally that they would be even worse. Not much to report about the second round except I again enjoyed the Lankamaa stage a lot. There was a small timing error in the Lankamaa stage and for a short period of time the results showed us being fourth overall in the standings right behind Citroën and Ford factory cars. People cracked a few jokes about that. The very last stage for the day was Killeri super special. The Norwegians beat us this time since we took the first round a bit too carelessly. But the rally had been going OK and we were happy to get through the day without any problems. Also we were looking forward to getting a good night sleep since around 7,5 hours of sleep was in the cards.

Posing with Tuija Huttunen. One of the many people who in Finnish rally training donate countless hours of their personal spare time helping  the young drivers. I'm still quite energetic at 10.30pm and with only 5,5hours of sleep on the previous night. Picture by Juha Huttunen (also one of the helping people in training)

Saturday. The last day of rally Finland. Still around 143km of special stages to go. 66km of those driven in legendary Ouninpohja. Leustu 1 and Surkee 1 started the day however. Leustu was a very nice stage. First on a smaller road and then on a really fast section. We had a bit of a moment in one left hand junction where a down hill braking caught us by surprise. Lost a couple of seconds since Andreas had to throw the car more sideways than optimal and that kills the momentum with a fwd car. After Leustu 1 and Surkee 1 we had service then the same stages were driven again. We took a bit of a gamble by continuing with a low car. We speculated that the roads might stay in better condition than they actually really where. Well you win some and you loose some. Sometimes you have to make decisions.

Some deep ruts on Leustu or Surkee junction. Picture by "Jack Bacon"

After the service was the legendary Ouninpohja. We tried to convince each other that it's just a Finnish road like every other stage. Still in the start line of Ouninpohja 1 you could sense our concentration was above normal. First you have 6-7km of fast roads going up and down, then the really fast sections going basically flat out, then the Kakaristo junction and after fast narrow road almost to the finish line. The first run wasn't easy for us and we were pretty humble guys at the finish line. In the beginning I read a bit too much forwards until I got the rhythm improved. Also Andreas had his hands full since there were places on the stage where we were jumping even though we didn't have it in the notes. The stage really is that fast even for a R2 Fiesta.

One of Ouninpohja crests. Picture by Jenni Lehtola.

Storming through Ouninpohja. Picture by "Jack Bacon"

Jumping again. Picture by "Jack Bacon"

Landing. The normal ride height isn't that low. Picture by "Jack Bacon"

Second time through Ouninpohja was much easier. The stage was more or less in muscle memory and you knew what to expect. Still at one slower left hand corner I realized that the pace was so fast I hadn't had a chance to fully inhale during the past couple of kilometers. Funny what you might notice during such a fast special stage.

At the Ouninpohja 2 finish we were happy and sad. Happy that we were second in class behind Joonas Lindroos and also at the same time second fastest 2wd car. Sad that the rally was over. We had virtually no problems during the rally and the stages were spectacular. The atmosphere on stages and even on the road sections is unbelievable. There are people standing by the road and waving even on the road sections. If you need to pass someone on the road sections they try to make as much room as possible and wave when you pass them by. What an adventure. Hopefully got a chance to go back again.

On the podium celebrating the second place. Picture by Juha Huttunen.

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.