My intention in this homerally of mine was to drive over the finish line because the previous time when I was able to drive the whole Rally Pohjanmaa through was in 2018.
This time the rally was held in May, not in June as usual. The roads were a bit softer and there were fewer leaves in the trees which gave us more visibility.
I drove under a far back number of 104 which meant lines and ruts on the roads but luckily we didn’t have to drive in the dark.
Enni Mälkönen, my co-driver in the gravel rally of Kuhmoinen in February, took the co-driver’s seat once again.
There was no pressure. I just wanted to drive and have a good feeling with no unnecessary reasoning. We had a great start because on the first stage on Friday we were seventh fastest. There was another stage on Friday where we were ninth fastest so after Friday we were in seventh position.
There were six stages on Saturday, the second day of the race. Our car worked perfectly and the brand new dampers made Celica trustworthy. We were among ten fastest on stages, made no bigger mistakes and because some of the top drivers had to retire it improved our position. Finally Enni and I were fifth overall. Lauri Joona won. We lost about 1.3 seconds per kilometer to him which was not bad at all.
My best result with Celica ST165 ever!
