Finnish rallying championship news

[OldF]

Video from Vaakuna rally if someone is interested. Watch from about 1:45:00. Start of Salo with 208 T16 and Ketomaa whit Mirage R5.

http://www.lansi-savo.fi/vaakunaralli

[garais22]

Gryazin crashes into house
http://www.go4speed.lv/lv/news/ralli...-avariju-foto/

[Sulland]

How did Katomaa find the Mirage vs the Ford?

[Hartusvuori]

I haven't heard any interview with Ketomaa comparing Mitsubishi to Ford. Paid drivers normally don't do that. Ketomaa's pace with Mitsubishi was surprisingly good. He finished 4th overall, 48 seconds behind Salo who had a clean run and had to step on it a bit to keep Veiby behind. Ketomaa lost huge chunk of time on SS2 due to snow ploughing. On Saturday stages he lost only 0,23s/km to Salo, running first on the road, Salo second. I was positively surprised on the performance of the car, considering the car's background.

Kristian Kiviniemi had his debut in DS3 R5, but his run was troubled by rear brake problems and he eventually retired after SS6. I'm expecting him to join fight for victories on gravel rallies.

[OldF]

Ketomaa said that he had engine problems on SS2.
“No power. It works ok for 10 sec but then the engine is dead.”
Jarkko Nikara was leading by 7,1 sec after SS5 but retired on SS6. Official reason was technical but from a Finnish forum it was puncture.
http://www.lansi-savo.fi/urheilu/moo...urissa-ketomaa

SS6 was live today (00 car @ 11:40)
http://www.lansi-savo.fi/vaakunaralli

[Jarek Z]

I haven't heard any interview with Ketomaa comparing Mitsubishi to Ford. Paid drivers normally don't do that.

Are you sure? I read Ketomaa's comments (in Polish) here:
http://rajdy.autoklub.pl/news/salo-u...eiby-emu,66363

He says Mitsubishi R5 needs further development, but he hopes to continue driving this car.

[Hartusvuori]

Ketomaa said that he had engine problems on SS2.
“No power. It works ok for 10 sec but then the engine is dead.”
Jarkko Nikara was leading by 7,1 sec after SS5 but retired on SS6. Official reason was technical but from a Finnish forum it was puncture.
http://www.lansi-savo.fi/urheilu/moo...urissa-ketomaa

SS6 was live today (00 car @ 11:40)
http://www.lansi-savo.fi/vaakunaralli

Nikara went off road on SS6 and tyre fell off the rim. Apparently some other technical issue occured too plus he lost a lot of time on SS6. He's driving on the limit all the time. Very spectacular. It's just that he'd someone to sponsor his driving. He's damn good, but there's no point really just to beat that Green Ol' Warhorse and retire in the end...

[Zeakiwi]

Are the snow conditiions more consistent in Finland than Sweden? Would the winter WRC rally be better to be held in Finland as well as NORF in summer?

[Co-FIN]

I we would like to have winter rally in Finland with 100% snowy conditions it should be in Rovaniemi at Arctic Rally. It's 50/50 if in southern Finland..

[Hartusvuori]

Like Co-Fin said, only far North for 100% certainty. During Rally Sweden, conditions were worse in Finland halfway down than they were in Hagfors region. Rallies were cancelled. Then again, not every year does Rally Sweden have problems with weather, same as in Finland, some winters are better than others. At the moment conditions are the best, but it can change drastically in three, four days if temperatures would go up.