7. helmik. 2024
It was my first Arctic Rally as a codriver/coach. The week started on monday by collecting documents and getting ready for recce. This rally is an exception because the recce is free instead of normal two passes. The stages in the rally are amazing to drive. So many different characters. We did every stage minimum 4 times. Recce went as planned and we were happy with the notes. Thursday morning we did recce for ss1/2 and shakedown as these stages are only then? open. In the afternoon we did two passes of shakedown just to check that the car was working after rebuild. All was ok and we were ready for the rally.
Rally started with legendary Aittajärvi, a very demanding and fast stage full of rhythm changes. Tomas did the stage ok, some mistakes and small overshoot but we were still 4th fastest. SS2 was my turn to drive. 10 years since I last drove in a rally. Midway through the stage I clipped the snowbank slightly and snow came to the windscreen, I asked Tomas to put wipers on, which he did but accidentally also pressed stagemode off so last part of the stage was not full power & the stage was also very slippy which ment I lost maybe few seconds in time. We were still 2nd fastest. SS3 Siikakämä was something we both waited as Tomas really liked the stage, towards the end of the stage throttle started to loose contact which cost us some time. Unfortunately the car stopped after road section with broken sensor. It was a big disapointment for all of us, 1 euro part failed.
We decided to continue rally in super rally as car was in perfect condition.
Morning started with second pass of Aittajärvi stage. It went really well until mid of the stage when we approached a slow junction. We together had marked a breakingpoint which in these conditions with deep ruts on braking meant that we could not stop the car as wanted and hit the snowbank not head on but front corner, which unfortunately broke the radiator and we had to retire.
The rallyweek was very interesting as a codriver, the workload was extreme with all the corrections. I decided to rewrite all notes to save time. I salute all level of codriver with the work they do as its huge amount different things to look after, starting with drivers.
I want to thank Tomas and the mechanics for the rallyweek as we had good fun whole week even if the result was not even close to what we wanted and want to thank my wife for all the support and taking care of our son Gabriel when I was working.
Im already in Rantapirtti doing next training whole week with Michal and Piotrek and from here straight to Rovaniemi for 3 days. More of these trainings later.