The traditional Lahti rally was ahead and I felt excited but to be honest I have to say that I was a bit tired after the Secto Rally Finland the previous weekend.
Luckily I forgot the tiredness when the flag swung.
After Jyskälä it was easy to start in Koukunmaa because it felt like I just continued my racing from where I was left in Jyväskylä although the car was of course not the same. It was easy and relaxed to drive but on stage two my co-driver Enni Mälkönen had to remind me that my Celica was not a Rally1 car. Drive according to that, she told me.
Day one went excellently but we lost gear number two. We had to change the cluster into the gearbox.
Day two started near the Hämeenkoski area where on the first stage of the day the upper water hose of the cooler slackened spraying the cooling liquid on the windshield making the visibility bad. We managed to drive to the service and the mechanics could fix the problem. Five liters of cooling liquid was gone.
The car ran well now that the problem was fixed but it was “breathing ” after the stages. However, Celica did not break and we got the seventh victory of the Lahti Historic Rally. After the race we had to fix the engine quite a lot, but that’s just motorsport!
