
13. helmik. 2024
Last week I was coaching Michal snd Piotrek in Rantapirtti. Michal has bought a new Toyota GR Yaris rallycar, its not a rally2 but still a proper machine. Piotrek drove his new crosscart for the first time. We had 5 intensive days together and both of them surprised me in how much they improved during the week. Especially Piotrek who turned just 14. Incredible talent and very easy to work with and coach. From the first laps with the cart it just clicked, lap by lap he learned more about driving fast with the cart. As a surprise Michal wanted him to drive the rallycar in the last days. I was lost in words to be honest, how quickly he learned it all, he thinks alot about the driving but also everything comes out of him naturally. It was amazing to follow.
Michal is an experienced crosscountry driver who also improved his driving in general with good steps, its more to understand why and how we do things in different corners.
I thoroughly enjoyed every day working with this great family and im already waiting for the next coaching session.
From rantapirtti I travelled straight back to Rovaniemi with Eduardo Castro. We met for the first time and it was also his first time in Finland. We had 3 day plan but thanks to rentalcar gearbox failure our plan changed so we didnt visit Juha Kankkunen driving academy, but actually I think it was a good thing as we started to work on notes immediatly.
I changed Eduardos notesystem complitely. He had 1-5 with +- in all and the new system is only 1-9. Also we changed how he makes distances of corners, after crests, to bext corners etc.. it started to work really quickly and even if we did it all in english he could still do it really well. I was really happy with this progress and start of our collaboration. Last two days we drove with the rally3 over 220km in total, using 4 different stages.
I also changed alot in his driving, just aiming in faster and more confident driving. Eduardo totallya surprised me in how quickly he learned the secrets of driving on snow/ice. We worked hard in his driving, how little steering input is needed, how we can control the car more with throttle, how we need to focus in carrying maximum minimum speed in corners etc.. the list is long.
Im extremely happy in how much Eduardo learned during these 3 days and I believe we continue to work also in the future.
Now its time to have a holiday with family.



