SM O.K. Auto rally in Kouvola 13th-14th of July

Second summer rally in the Finnish rally championship. This time in Kouvola and on very fast and challenging roads. Adding some spice to the normal entry list were WRC Academy driver Elfyn Evans from UK and Nil Solans from Spain. It was interesting to see their pace in among the regular runners.

There had been some rain before the recce, but luckily the weather stayed cloudy during the recce and rally. On Friday after the recce we had one super special stage on Kouvola rallycross track. 1 kilometre long sprint didn't much raise the heart beat. We lost 1,8 seconds which was quite a lot on such a short stage. Didn't really matter sine we still had 90km of stages to go, but it's always better to win time on a super special than to loose. If you loose time you have to fight those seconds back in the forests between the trees.

On Saturday every stage were to be run twice. We started with the longest one of them all. 16,75km should wake up everyone. We drove with our usual pace and managed to be the fastest in our class driving the same time with Jukka Korhonen. A bit of a surprise really since we didn't push it or take any risks.

The next stage was where all the action was during the rally. I created some for us by being late with one note and we half spun losing about 5 seconds. That was minor compared to some of our R2 competitors. There was a big jump on the stage where Jukka Korhonen and Juho Annala crashed their cars heavily. Here is a youtube clip of the place Kouvola special stage 3 jump and here is Jukka's in-car clip Jukka Korhonen jump and crash Jukka and his co-driver Mikael were OK and can fix their car for Neste Rally Finland, but unfortunately Juho and his co-driver Tuukka were taken to hospital, because of Juho's back pains. His season is over, but luckily nothing permanent and he should be back on the stages 2013 with his C2.

After the third stage we only knew that Jukka and Juho had crashed, but since the online results didn't work too well we kept on driving with the normal pace the following two stages before the service. On the fourth we even had a small "moment" when cutting a left hand corner a small cliff lifted our car on two wheels. After service we found out that we were leading before Elfyn Evans who had driven very well considering his fiesta had WRC Academy settings. I chatted some time with Elfyn and his co-driver and asked how they liked the rally. Our lead was quite comfortable, but we kept the normal pace on the stages that were now run for the second time. We only lifted a little bit on the last one. First ever class victory really made us smile. Only niggle was that three fiestas were taken to technical inspection for 45minutes before we even got to the podium. Minor nuisance for mechanics before victory celebrations.

So much for Kouvola. Now the focus is on Neste Oil Rally Finland planning recce/rally schedules, eating schedules, fuel calculations, checking technical regulations etc. First time for me in a WRC event and something I have dreamed of all my life. Hopefully we'll be fast and make it to the finish.

Spring "break"

Since during spring there aren't any rallies in Finland we went to UK to watch Pirelli International rally on 27th and 28th of April. Not driving, just seeing how the process of competing in British rallies works. And by we I don't mean just Andreas and me. With us were Andreas' trusted mechanic Niko and one of our familiar competitors from Finland: Jussi Vainionpää and his co-driver Mika Juntunen. Mika also belongs to the same training team as us. So all in all a jolly good group of people.We participated in the recce and watched the stages next day. Narrow roads from the Finnish perspective. Still fast though so nice to watch. Other than that things didn't seem that different compared to our own championship.


So what else. Training. In Vierumäki we had our physical tests. So rowing in the rowing machine + a dozen different physical tests. In May we had also a driving weekend to get some feeling of the cars on gravel and also to try different setups. The training weekends also bring up the social side of rallying since there is always time for a chat. 


During May we also participated in one actual rally. Ovisepät -rally wasn't part of the Finnish rally championship, but since you were allowed to use pace notes it served as a good practice session. The stages were old Finnish WRC round's stages. Fast and lots of crests. On one stage there was even few kilometers of tarmac. 


The spring break away from the championship went by quite fast and seems July-August is going to be particularly busy. Two championship rounds and Finnish championship round Neste Oil Rally Finland. 

POP Pankki -rally 9th 0f June 2012

After a long spring break from rallying it was finally time for the next Finnish rally championship round in Lapua. The roads were known to be extremely fast since we the stages are the same as last year. In 2011 I was co-driving for a car which rolled on the second stage so I was hoping not to repeat that experience.

We made whole new pace notes even thought we could have used Andreas' old ones from 2011. There have been some improvement in the notes and time wise you don't even save much when using the old ones. The schedule was really relaxed during the recce and we had plenty of time to make sure we ate enough and maxed our energy resources for the next day.

Andreas and Esapekka Lappi before the start of the rally. Picture by "Jack Bacon".

On Saturday the first one was a really fast over 20km long stage. The specialty of the stage was a 5km long very fast tarmac section. The stage seemed to go fine, but we lost 10 seconds to Jukka Korhonen who was fastest in our class. 

Picture from a first stage junction. Taken by "Jack Bacon".

After the first stage we already had first service where we decided to push harder on the second one. Our concentration was tested in the start of the stage where a red flag was raised and we had to wait in the car for 15 minutes for a restart. Somebody's car was blogging the road. We pushed quite hard right from the beginning. We overshoot one junction quite early in the stage and later almost went off the road. The stage seemed very slippery and Fiesta's rear tried to overtake us from time to time. We lost only 10 seconds which was OK all things considering. Link to youtube  In-car special stage 2 We had a bit of a moment at 6min30sec. 

On the third stage we drove OK and lost 5 seconds. That seemed a bit odd since we didn't make any notable mistakes. After third stage we had the last service. Jukka was leading the class quite cofortably, but second place was still possible for us with a little bit of luck. We decided to push on the last one. The last stage was first one driven again. We wouldn't be able to drive the stage much faster than that. We improved our stage time by 15 seconds. Still we lost 0,6 seconds to the fastest time in our class. In overall results we were fourht in class and dropped to third place in the championship. Not the end of the world. After the rally we found out that the differential wasn't probably working OK. So in the future some work with the car and testing for setups. Then the next championship round on the 14th of July in Kouvola.

SM Vaakuna rally, Mikkeli 26th of February 2012

Winter season's final Finnish Rally Championship round was held in Mikkeli. Luckily the weather wasn't as cold as the previous year when the temperature was around -32 celcius.

The rally started already on Friday evening with an 11 kilometer super special stage. The stage circled on a horse racing track before heading into the woods. In the woods the road was narrow and had a lot of loose snow outside the ruts. We lost some time when the rear stepped out of the ruts a couple of times.

Picture by "Jack Bacon"

On Saturday morning things luckily turned brighter. Long and challenging stage number 2 went really well. We beat Joonas Lindroos by ten seconds and took the class lead. However the class lead disappeared during the next two stages. Those were wide and fast roads. We don't have a lot of power in our car so if the rear steps out even a little bit it kills the speed.

Before the last stage the situation was clear. Joonas was leading by 15 seconds so without his mistake positions weren't going to change. The last stage went really well and we even managed to catch the car which started ahead of us. We weren't able to pass him so we just cruised to the finish. After steady start of the season we are now second in the 2wd championship so things are really well after the winter season. Next round of the Finnish Rally Championship will be held on 8-9th of June.

Picture by "Jack Bacon"

Arctic Lapland Rally, 27th-28th of January 2012

One week after Riihimäki rally it was time to head to Rovaniemi in Lapland. Arctic Lapland Rally is a legendary rally in Finland and like the name says it's held on the Arctic Circle. The rally is twice as long (233km of special stages) as the normal Finnish championship rounds so we had three and a half days for the recce. The stages were awesome. Even the shortest one was 20km long and the longest was 47km! A real challenge for me since the roads in the Arctic Lapland Rally are the most challenging in Finnish championship. The winter had been perfect for ensuring firm coating of snow and ice on top of the roads. During the recce the temperatures were between -17 and -30. Had to use more than just a T-shirt when walking outside.

We started to the first stage around 1pm on Friday. We were once again fighting against the all Citroën C2 R2 front. Sergey Karyakin from the WRC Academy was entered to the rally with a Fiesta R2, but he had withdrawn before the start. Shame since it would have been nice to compare our speed with one of the WRC Academy guys. The first stage was a super special that we would drive three times during the rally. For a super special the stage was actually really good since it was 3,7km long. We just drove it through with normal speed and managed to be fastest in our class. With a huge margin of 0,1s. The main thing is not to win the super specials, but not to give any easy/stupid seconds away to the competition. Those are hard to get back in the forest between the trees.

The second stage was a proper stage with 23km of fast roads. We lost 5 seconds to the class leader, but we were happy to get the rally properly under way. I managed to be late with the pace notes once when going through somebody's yard, but luckily there wasn't anything tricky with the corner and had the time to catch up immediately. After this stage we entered the service for the first time and then headed for two long stages which were to be driven in the dark.


In addition of driving in the dark the rally there was a problem off snow dust hanging in the air. Similar phenomenon as Greece or Cyprus WRC rounds have with the gravel dust. When the temperature is cold enough and there is no wind there is a risk of snow dust and these two stages now had the dust hanging in the air. The third stage wasn't that bad with only the occasional dust. We lost 3 seconds to the class winner on the 32km stage so one could say that the battle for the lead was quite even.

After 60 stage kilometers we were 6,1 seconds from the class lead. The fourth stage was also a long one with 36km. On that stage the snow dust really was a problem and you could only see 20-30 meters in front of you. We even dried if we could see better using only the normal day time driving lights. That sometimes helps if there is really much snow in the air and the extra lights doesn't reflect so much from all the snow in the air. That trick didn't provide any assistance. One thing that really saved our day was the fact that we used an accurate trip meter for checking the distances during the recce. No we relied on the pace notes when keeping the throttle to the floor half blind. It worked. The margins weren't huge, but we managed to eat 4,9 seconds from the class leader and were only 1,2s behind when going back to Rovaniemi for the super special and overnight  service.

On the super special we attacked a bit too much and went wide one corner loosing time. Without that small mistake we would have been in the class lead, but had to settle for the second place when heading of to bed. The time difference after 100 stage kilometers was 0,9s! Excellent battle and the spirits were high since with differences like this you don't have to sleep in the car half of the rally. In the 45min service we changed the brake discs and pads and drove the car to parc fermé around 9.30pm. 

After good night sleep it was an early wake up for breakfast and getting the car out of parc fermé after 8am. Our plan was to attack on the first stage and that we certainly did. We were trying a bit too hard and our driving wasn't neat enough especially on the junctions. We lost almost 20s on the 30km stage. Luckily there were still 100 stage kilometers to go so the game wasn't over yet. We decided to tidy up the driving a bit for the next stage which was also 30km long. Well that wasn't to be. One kilometer from the start of the stage we heard a loud banging noise from the front. We thought that a drive shaft was broken, but when Andreas tried to brake he realized it might just be a brake caliber problem. Apparently when changing the discs and pads one of the brake calibers wasn't tightened properly. We stopped on the stage, took out the front left caliber and switched a spare wheel since the rim was broken too. Then drove 28km with only using the hand brake. Luckily the last 10km was a really fast section so we didn't have to slow down too much. In any case we lost 10min 35s. 

Just to make sure we were on a good mood the driver's side window got stuck 3/4 open for a 50km road section in -23 degrees temperature. It got a bit chilly in the car. We don't usually play with the windows too much, but Andreas opened it in a junction because he couldn't see through the window since it was frozen from the inside. The R2 car's heaters don't have enough power to keep the side windows open when the temperature is below -15 or so. Even our water bottles near the floor of the car were 2/3 frozen since only the area near the roof is even somewhat warm. The windshield stays open since it's electrically heated. 

Picture is from the fast 10km section. No brakes anymore, but still almost managed to jump.

On the service we managed to get 3,5/4 of the brakes working and close the driver's side window. Even though we had lost a lot of time you should never quit trying. The plan was to pick up any left over points since those might be really valuable in the end of the season. We still had two stages and 70 stage kilometers to go. Anything could happen. On the second last 23km long stage we lost only 4s to the stage winner. A really good result since the brakes weren't 100%. That helped since now we knew we didn't at least take a 30s beating. Something else helped even more. We got an SMS from our service crew before the very last 47km marathon stage. Others crews had had their share of problems(technical or digging the cars out of snow banks) and miraculously we were now second in class and third overall in the 2wd category! That really lifted the spirits and the plan was to drive "fast without risks". Below is our in-car clip from the stage.

ALR 2012 Stage 10, 47km

Meaning not taking any risks, but also not to lift the throttle if there wasn't any reason to take the bend slower than normal. In the end of the stage we found out that we had been fastest in class by 17,6s and secured the second in class and third overall in 2wd!

Goes without saying that the spirits were quite high in the car! Starting with 0,9s to the lead in the morning, the dropping over 10min and then fighting back to second place. An emotional roller coaster, but that's why the Arctic Lapland Rally has the reputation of being an adventure. After the Arctic Lapland Rally we are now third overall in the 2wd championship standings since the SM2 and SM3 classes are fighting for one title only. The next championship round is on the 25th on February in Mikkeli. Before that we have AKK's training weekend and also one small rally on the previous weekend before Mikkeli.

Riihimäki -rally 14th of January 2012

Riihimäki -rally had the honor of being the first rally of the 2012 Finnish Rally Championship. The weather had been really warm and things weren't looking too good for a winter rally. On the previous weekend we headed 450km north of Helsinki to Nilsiä where one could test tyres and car in proper winter conditions. Two days of testing went well and the whole crew got the chance to get some routine of their tasks.

Any worries of a proper winter rally vanished during the week before the Riihimäki -rally. Colder temperatures and some snow enabled a nice winter rally. The first stage of the rally was super special held in the center of Riihimäki on a horse race track. We didn't try anything special and kept driving really clean. The stopwatch appreciated that and we were the fastest 2wd car in the Finnish championship. This year the 2wd cars have been divided into two categories. SM2-class competes with maximum 2 liter cars (civics, fiestas, R2 clio) and the SM3-class with R2 and R1 cars. Both classes fight for one 2wd championship. The R2s are faster on narrow and technical roads and the bigger engined cars on faster stages. Our SM3-class in funny in that way that we are the only crew driving a Ford Fiesta. Everybody else has Citroën C2 R2s in normal or max guises.

The second stage we drove too calmly and lost 12 seconds to Joonas Lindroos in our class. Lindroos was second in Finnish 4wd championship in 2011 and now stepped one step down back to 2wd drive cars. So we didn't loose to a slow driver, but anyway would have been nice to continue leading our class. Third stage was more to our pace and we only lost a few seconds to Lindroos. We headed to the first service second in our class.

After the service there were three stages where we basically drove neck and neck with Lindroos. Didn't manage to close down the gap however. After those three stages we headed back to the service area for our second service. The tactic for the last two stages was quite obvious. No heroics and secure good points with the second place. That was quite easy to do. We also finished fourth overall with the 2wd category. A couple of civics were also faster than us on the fast roads. Next day after the rally we went and drove the stages though again to see where we could have driven faster, improve our pace notes and read the notes with better timing. An exercise I definitely recommend.

Next rally in the championship is the legendary Arctic Lapland Rally 27th-28th of January in Rovaniemi at the Arctic circle. A two day rally with 233 special stage kilometers and some epic scenery. Since the rally is so long we'll fly to Lapland already on Sunday and start the recce on Monday.

Plans for season 2012

The plan for season 2012 is to co-drive in the Finnish Rally Championship for Andreas Amberg. Andreas' web pages can be found from www.andreasamberg.com. New web pages will be published before Christmas. After the last rally in September Andreas sold the Honda Civic and we'll be driving a Ford Fiesta R2. Andreas' long time sponsor Trailerikeskus Oy really showed their support by enabling us to compete with the Fiesta next year. First impressions are that it's really a rally car after the group N Civic. Very light, handles nicely and everything is designed for racing. Lacks power compared to the 220hp Civic though, but the other areas of the car compensate the power deficit a lot.

The championship starts from Riihimäki on the 14th of January and one week later we are already off towards Rovaniemi for Arctic Lapland Rally recce. Arctic Lapland Rally is on the 28th-29th of January. After that only one winter rally left in the championship which is Mikkeli on the 26th of February. Summer season starts after a three month break in Lapua on the 9th of June, then Kouvola 14th of July, Siikainen 18th of August and traditional Kerava 15th of September. Somewhere between those days you fill in all the training weekends, own testing sessions, pace note training and physical training. In addition to the "normal" life stuff that people have: visiting your friends, going to parties, national holidays etc. For sure I don't have to spend my time sitting on the couch during Jan-Feb, Jun-Aug.

October-December has now been spent trying to find sponsors, training, booking hotels for the first rallies, planning schedules and so on. Now that Christmas is knocking on the door it's time to rest a couple of weeks before starting final preparations for Riihimäki rally and Arctic Lapland Rally. The "big boys" said that the Fiesta R2 heater isn't really suited for keeping the cabin warm at temperatures below -15 Celcius. As a philosophical question one might wonder that how cold can it be spending 2 days in that kind of a rally car at Rovaniemi when the temperatures usually are between -25 and -35 in the end of January? Luckily the windshield is electrically heated keeping it unrozen. No worries then...