This was the second race with Janni Hussi as my co-driver. The car had been serviced after the Lahti Historic Rally. It had a new turbo now and we were hoping that the car would work through the whole race. A clean run over the weekend would be great after all the challenges in the rallies this summer. Retirements in Lahti Historic Rally and in Ostrobothnia Rally, even in Tuuri rally. Three retirements in a row for my Celica.
It was rainy when the race started which made the two first stages very slippery. At the beginning of stage two I thought that it would be impossible to keep the car on the road but then I eased my driving a bit and found the rhythm. On stage four we had one great moment. In 1981 this very stage was driven in the Helsinki Rally. The fastest time on that stage was then driven by Henri Toivonen, my idol. Now this stage was a part of the Hakevuori Rally and I drove the fastest time.
We really had fun with Janni in the car which was running perfectly. Everything went as planned. We won our category and we won overall. Definitely two good reasons to feel extremely happy.
