Rally Finland 2010

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Originally Posted by Rallyper

Hello Juha!

Look at the pickém. Who was the first to pick JML? :)

Great win! And I´m as happy as you are!

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Nice! :D

Rallyper, after all, were you at the Himos jump in the small road? I was there during the first pass through and then we switched to a high speed right hander that surprised us all, very wide lines there...

Sirkkamäki was a bit of a disappointment because we were supposed to get a call how to get to a good place but that never happened and we had to spectate two rounds on a field in not a very special place. All in all, a very nice rally, even though I always get this very empty feeling when it's all over. :rolleyes: I'm just so happy that JML won. I've always said that he's going to be a future champion but now I'm 100% sure that he'll really do it one day.

Juha!
No I was at the start of Surkee (saw Hannu Mikkola there) first km on a field and then went down to Leustu P3, both on first loop.

After that I unfortenately had to go to Turku and the ferry back home to Sweden. So I only heard on news that he won. But today at home at the PC I´ve watched all the drama last day. Fantastic win.

At Sirkkamäki I was about one K from start on the fast left downhill, and there was one N4 car off there and ripped off the right front wheel. Then some of the first S2000 cars (though after Gardemeister) did som spectacular breaking before that bend. I heard some heavy bumps, so he must have hit something beside the road at breaking before that bend. I was then about to leave the stage.

And - being much older than you, I remember when I was younger the feeling of emptyness when some big event was over. ;)

Now we´ve have to wait another year.....

It has been a long time since I last time wrote a report from a rally. So I might as weel do so now.

Our rally started at thursday evening from SS1. I was watching in the middle of downhill from Laajavuori towards the end. In a special stage like this, it's no wonder you may see more drunks than cars but you could see the fierce battle of S2000. Hänninen, PG, Rantanen and especially Ketomaa were absolutely crazy in that downhill. So, start for the rally was made. After that we briefly visited HQ just to notice it was about to get closed.

Next morning my companion did something he had never ever done in his life. He was still asleep while I finished my breakfast. So, an hour behind our schedule, we ´rushed to Urria stage. Amazingly, and thanks to my driving skills, we got there in time. Unfortunately the location we spectated wasn't any special. Basicly it was a long straigth with small crest. After that we went to Jukojärvi on the second run. That was a very good place to watch. There we heard that Mikko has rolled his car badly. While sitting there on a fallen log I thought WTF I was doing there. But continued our journey to the east side of Jyväskylä, in order to get the first run of Myhinpää stage.

A brief word about the two day rally .... competitionwise it was a great choise from the organizors. But from a spectator point of view it was totally BS. From the first stages in the morning, it was more than 100 km to the ones at the afternoon. And since there was a strom at previous night, northern route was limited. So we drove there through Jyväskylä like million others :mark: Finally we got there, at P2. There was a queue was more than tow kms because there were two people selliong parking tiockets. And they didn't just sell them, they chatted with people without any rush... so, the queue got longer and longer. I was pretty pissed off when I reach the lad selling the ticket. Once I got my car parked, I noticed that no-one wasn't walking to the stage. There was a free non-stop busdrive to the stage. Now, mark my word; non-stop.... Once the bus got to the parking place, it took 17 minuted to load two busses with people ??? 17 minutes ??? I got so angry that I refused to go there since there was no chance of getting there in time. Now, somebody might just wonder why I didn't walk to the stage?? Well, it was 8 kilometer walk... So, just to get back we left right away and took the second run of Laajavuori. It was good but i was really disappointed because I would have wanted to see Myhinpää.

next morning was awfull, not because ot the weather but because I had a huge migraine. We still went to the first stage of the day, Kavala or was it?? Anyway, we found just amazing location. No marshalls anywhere and loooong view of the cars with curves and small crest. Plus, my migraine finally was standing away. There Kimi went off just in front of our eyes :D

Sadly, I heard that the other party of my friends didn't have just as great night and morning :( But we all drove to Leustu stage where we found a pretty good place. This was the first run of Leustu. From there we went to second run of Surkee to visit more forum members. We could have had the chance to get to the last stage, Himos. But we decided not to get there because I tell you, the traffic was unbelievable there. So, we packed our staff and started to drive home while listenening rally radio. SO, somewhere at Joutsa, I heard that LAtvala won the rally :hot:

All in all, the weekend was busier than previous ones because of the schedule, the weather was great, meeting old friends and new ones from the forum, it was just another great Neste Oil Rally Finland :)

My photos from NORF 2010:

http://www.rallikuvat.net/2010/norf/index.php

http://rallikuvat.1g.fi/2010/norf/images/norf_16.jpg

Nice photos PMM. Could you PM me with what camera you use? Cheers.

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Originally Posted by pettersolberg29

Nice photos PMM. Could you PM me with what camera you use? Cheers.

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Check the title of the gallery page ;)

WAIT!! Latvalpa won?!!!???

What happened to Factory Ford Star Block? 8)

Getting back my pieces together. Three full days of rallying is heavy even without the beer.

Friday started with both passes of Urria. We were at a nice crest right after the 90 degree left from the small road to bigger road. Hirvonen was going absolutely crazy there on both passes - and some two kilometres later on the second pass he had his off. That took out the good feeling for some time, but once Latvala took over, it didn't matter. For a Latvala fan like me, I just held my breath.

For the afternoon we choosed both runs of Sirkkamäki even if Lankamaa and Myhinpää both tempted more. That was purely to avoid traffic jams which we completely did for the whole weekend. We qued for nothing although we did shakedown and six different stages. We went to the beginning of Sirkkamäki, at the bottom of the long downhill left. Some nice sideways action there, especially from Harry Hunt on the first run and Juho Hänninen on the second run. Juha Salo went off 200 metres before us. It was a scene to remember to see Salo being pulled back to road and Jarkko Nikara passing with his bonnet up. Finnish hopes... It was bad afternoon for Finnish drivers altogether with Ketomaa and Lindroos both retiring.

For Saturday morning we went to Kolonkulma. Something around 4 kms into the stage, a short view of steep downhill right with small jumps. Nothing special really, except Kimi's battered car. We continued to Leustu 1, at the end of the stage to the top of the steep downhill to see if there's any jumping. A few nice jumps there, especially Petter, but nothing else really. Lots of people there also.

Then we hurried to Surkee 2 without any planning where to spectate, so we ended up to field that showed a left-hander into short uphill and then right. Ogier and Solberg came absolutely crazy there, flat out where as Latvala was clearly more careful. We left after Östberg to Himos 2. Nice spice to the rally route happened at Jämsänkoski where we saw a Fiesta Trophy car and went to chat with them. I came out that the co-driver was the son of Terry Harryman, Ari Vatanen's co-driver during Peugeot days and more, so there were some interesting stories there.

In Himos 2 we aimed for the so-called Nikara jump on the small road and oh boy what an ending it was for the rally and the current WRC cars in Finland. Front cars had big fights on, so they flew like crazy through the jump. The biggest jump however came once again from Nasser Al-Attiyah. Crazy driver, and not at all slow.

All in all very pleasant event. Saturday finish is rather perfect. Like many have said, few proper stages for Thursday would make it perfect.

Now back to rest.

anyone has pictures of nr 54 Michel Jourdain? its a red and white NEXTEL Lancer Evo IX

thanks in advance

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Originally Posted by PMM

Check the title of the gallery page ;)

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Thanks - should have noticed that really!