My timetable enabled me to take part in Lahti Historic Rally with Ford Escort MK2 BDA. This race is a European championships round. The car was built by Jukka Karjalainen from Oulu and when my father bought the car I was given an opportunity to taste a winning car from the 70s. The Escort was completed just before the start of this rally due to all kinds of difficulties. The mechanics worked long hours and didn't get much sleep and even right before the start one of the cylinders broke down. Everyone was experiencing some level of stress at that point. We had to perform the start of the rally with the starter only with no clutch and after the start the car was moved to parc ferme. On Friday the race started with stages and we were able to chance the cylinder before the first stage and the car was all set for the rally. Before the first stage I was a bit nervous because I hadn't been able to practice with the car much and a Ford Escort MK2 BDA and my own Ford Focus WRC 09 are so different from each other. The first stage went without mistakes but handling the gears too roughly broke the transmission so that I only had gears one, four, five and reverse left. I had to learn how to drive with three gears instead of five but luckily the fast roads and an engine with good performance helped my driving. During the day I learned to drive the car more and was able to enjoy it. After the day I was leading the race by about 20 seconds before Mika Turkki driving an Opel Ascona 400. Jari Kankaanmaki would have been second but he had got a time penalty for 30 seconds for being three minutes late from the start of stage six due to technical problems. On the second day of the race the roads were perhaps a bit faster and were good for me: I enjoyed driving and the sunshine while improving my lead. No more problems and no mistakes so we finished the rally as winners for about one minute fifteen seconds before Mika Turkki and Timo Hantunen. My co-driver in this rally was my friend Asko Sairanen and we both enjoyed the victory a lot after having such a rough start.