Co-driver: Miikka Anttila
Motoring Club organised an end-of-the-season rally. I got to drive an old Subaru because my -06 car was on its way from New Zealand to Italy. I drove the fastest time on stage one in group N and I was fifth in overall, but after stage two I had to retire due to an engine failure. Juha Kankkunen, a quadruple world champion, won the rally.
retirement
Subaru Impreza WRX STI spec C -05
Team: Motoring Club
Co-driver: Miikka Anttila
I was pretty exited before the rally because the last three races in Stobart’s car had failed. I had driven off the road in all of them. My racing car was now a -06 Ford which definitely would be a very competitive car. This was my fifth time in the Rally of Wales which made it easier for me to start competing in slippery conditions. I decided to drive nothing but my own speed and didn’t mind the times of the other drivers. We had a sticky start but my driving got better and better and on Friday evening we were suddenly fourth.
On Saturday I wasn’t able to drive as smoothly as on Friday and Xavier Pons beat us. He was now fourth and we were fifth. On Sunday we chose the perfect tyres for slippery and muddy roads. I managed to drive very well, Xavier spun and now we were fourth again. I concentrated on keeping this position till the end of the rally, I succeeded and in the finish we celebrated our best position so far. No fastest times, though – yet.
Overall 4th
Car: Ford Focus WRC -06
Service Team: Stobart
Co-driver: Miikka Anttila
We rested properly on a two-week holiday and after that came to New Zealand. The rally had moved from Auckland to Hamilton. Right away on stage one I was able to drive the fastest time but on stage two I swung and lost ten valuable seconds. On Friday I tried to drive as fast as possible but I couldn’t catch Juho Hanninen who was leading group N. On Saturday morning we managed to take perfect tyres and we drove fine times on slippery stages. In the middle of the day we were leading group N and the rest of the day went without trouble. When we came to the evening service an unpleasant surprise was waiting for us: we had driven 42km/h at the service area and the speed limit there is only 30km/h. The jury had decided to fine us with one minute.
On Sunday morning we started as second in group N 56 seconds behind Mirco Baldacci. But he was unlucky and had to retire because of a broken gearbox. We could maintain our lead till the end of the rally although it wasn’t easy to drive on slippery roads. The second win in group N was as sweet as the first one.
Group N 1st, Overall 8th
Subaru Impreza WRX Sti 06
Service Team: Motoring Club
Competition engineer: Asko Kosonen
Co-driver: Miikka Anttila
I think Australia is the best competition in the world championships series what comes to both the special stages and the organising of the rally. Unfortunately this is the last time Australia is in the series. The race started well and we were able to keep almost the same speed as the leaders although we could not drive any of the fastest times. On Friday evening the last two stages were difficult to drive fast because of the dust and the gap to the leader got quite big. Friday’s dramatic turn was when Chris Atkinson’s car burst into flames and we had to lend him a fire extinguisher which is why we got two compensated stage times. On Saturday my speed improved on the famous Bannister stages (jumps). In the evening we even managed to drive the fastest time once and now we were second in group N, only 27 seconds behind Ligato who was leading. On Sunday morning I tried to attack but that was a wrong choice. I hit the bank and broke my rear suspension. Luckily we were able to change it after the stage. Ligato had to retire in the next service due to a broken engine. The next two stages I drove as fast as I could having Aki Teiskonen breathing to my neck. Unfortunately he drove off the road and had to retire. I eased my driving and for the first time I was able to win a world championships round in group N. We were 6th overall.
Group N 1st, Overall 6th
Subaru Impreza WRX Sti 06
Service Team: Motoring Club
Competition engineer: Asko Kosonen
Co-driver: Miikka Anttila
The hard-surface roads in Uusikaupunki are even which makes it hard to get differences in time. On stage one I lost 2, 5 seconds to Sebastian “Basti” Lindholm. I tried harder on the second stage but lost even more. After that I tried to ease my driving up but Basti just kept on increasing his lead. In the service after the fourth stage we changed the transmission which made the car better and we were able to drive the fastest time once, but not even that was enough for us to catch Basti. We did all we could but we finished second, 15, 5 seconds behind the winner.
2nd
Toyota Corolla WRC
Team: Latvala Motorsport Ltd
Competition engineer: Asko Kosonen
Co-driver: Miikka Anttila
Our first time in Japan. The roads were fast and difficult but they suited our car. On Friday I drove carefully, avoiding the worst parts. That was a very good idea because on Friday afternoon I was leading group N. In the evening I slowed down a little bit and still kept the lead. Back to the roads on Saturday morning, even more carefully than the day before. The racing started to feel so good that I raised my speed. On Saturday evening my lead was one minute ten second.
On Sunday all that was needed was to drive sensibly, avoiding faults and unnecessary risks. Everything seemed perfect until on the third last stage the rod broke and I lost the control of the car. We slid into a ditch and the car fell; that was the end of Rally Japan. It was a huge disappointment for us as well as for the team. There is no such way the breaking of a rod could be avoided beforehand. But once again something good came out of the bad: we got a lot of attention and new fans in Japan.
retirement
Subaru Impreza WRX Sti 06
Service Team: Motoring Club
Competition engineer: Asko Kosonen
Co-driver: Asko Sairanen
The preparations for Neste Oil Rally 2006 went well. We could update the notes from the 2005 Neste Rally rather easily. Reading numbered notes was a bit confusing beforehand and even in the recce.
On the first day we hit the stone Jan Kopecky’s car had dug up. This happened on the test special stage in Laajavuori. Our service experts managed to fix the crack in the oil bottom before the stage of Killeri. The first stage on day two was Lankamaa. We spanned there in high speed. Luckily there was large enough a yard of a farm house and we didn’t lose much time in our spin. Special stages two and three, Laukaa and Ruuhimäki, went as planned.
Last year we retired at Vellipohja which put some pressure on us this year, but we managed well. Mökkiperä didn’t have jumps at the beginning like last year so it was easier but the right bend at the end was very slippery. The same stages were driven twice and we had no worries.
We had driven like a bus, on time from one bus stop to another. Killeri, which we drove perfectly, was the last stage of day one.
Our position was 14th overall.
Day two: the special stage of Vaheri ended a bit embarrassingly for us, we kept on driving after the finish. My co-driver hadn’t noticed the difference between the special stages in Vaheri and Himos so our notes weren’t right. Our time came out alright but guess just how much the rally radio joked about our “go off”!
Ouninpohja West and East were controlled driving which got us higher in overall positions. We were already number ten. After Urria it was Ouninpohja West and East again and our rear right tire got totally damaged because there was a crack in the rim. The tire even got into flames and we had to stop to put the fire out. That cost us several minutes. And that was not all, the next stage we had to drive very slowly (not race at all) because of all the damage caused by the fire. Our position was now 23rd. Our tremendous service personnel were able to fix the car again and we drove two good rally days as the first racing car on each stage. We finished 17th overall.
Many, many thanks for our sponsors, for our brilliant service team and for all of Jari-Matti’s fans from Finland and from abroad.
17th
Car: Toyota Corolla WRC
Team: Latvala Motorsport Ltd
Competition engineer: Asko Kosonen
Neste Rally 2006 was driven with our own sponsorships from mainly Tuuri but also other regions of Finland. So we collected budget by ourselves and Asko Sairanen was my co-driver at this event. This is the only event that I have driven with Asko in WRC level. Our target was to pass the rally and get experience for the future. At the very first special stage we had some disagreements because of spin, but after that we got right mood. We tried our best and we were competing even for the 8th place, but we had also some technical difficulties. Tyre exploded at Ouninpohja and it got fired. We need to stop and extinguish the fire, it was quite close that whole car got burned. We managed to change the tyre but it took 3-4 minutes. We were dropped at the scoreboard quite a lot. After that we got oil leakage at the gear box and it caused another fire, but we managed with that. I don’t remember all the other difficulties but after all those we reached the finish at the 17th place. We got fighting spirit trophy. We decided to finish the rally, and so we did.
Co-driver: Miikka Anttila
I had been looking forward to this competition because I like the German Rally. Right away on stage one I was surprised by the slippery road and I hit the railing badly. I had to retire which made me so sad I got tears into my eyes. My car was fixed, though, and I was able to continue the race on Saturday and on Sunday due to the super rally rule. I did the fifth and sixth best times on the stages.
retirement
Car: Ford Focus WRC 04
Stobart Motorsport
Co-driver: Miikka Anttila
It was +30 degrees when we started the 5th rally of the season. The heat was pretty hard for the cars. As early as on the first special stage we had problems with the breaks and we were four seconds slower than the stage winner. The next two stages went well and we were third, one tenth of a second away from the second place. On stage four we started having problems with the hydraulics. The problems lasted all the way to the finish line. It wasn’t easy to drive because the locks didn’t work right due to those earlier mentioned problems. Still we were able to finish second, but we had an unpleasant surprise waiting for us in the finish: we were disqualified because of an incident that happened on stage two. Our car died at time control and we were pushed aside by the organizers. That was against the rules according to the judgment of FASF.
Disqualified
Toyota Corolla WRC
Team: Latvala Motorsport Ltd
Competition engineer: Asko Kosonen