44th Arctic Lapland Rally, held from 23rd - 24th January, started off the 2009 Finnish Rally Championship season. One year ago, reigning Finnish Rally Champion, J.Salo, dominated the rally from start to finish in his Lancer Evo.IX equipped with the TYPE Gr.N shock absorber. The battle this year was expected to be much harder.
The rally began with J.Salo and his co-driver M.Stenberg leading after the first two stages but his teammate, also equipped with the TYPE Gr.N, K.Katajamaki and rival J.Ketomaa were both only 1.5 seconds behind. As the rally progressed, all three drivers battled hard to stay on top, but J.Salo returned to the service park in third overall position, 8.7 seconds behind the leader J.Ketomaa and K.Katajamaki in the second position.
"After SS2 we had something mysterious with our car. It didn't work as it should be in view of how hard I tried. There were also more snow on the road so maybe we lost some seconds because of the starting position as well", J.Salo said. The super special stage was held at the horse race circuit at the end of day 1. After the stage both J.Salo and M.Stenberg were still full of confidence and commented, "There are still 127 kilometers left, so anything can happen. Lost seconds are not easily caught up but we start tomorrow pushing the maximum".
J.Salo set the fastest time on the first stage on the second day, even though he hit the snow embankment, stalling his engine. J.Salo was able to close the gap from the leader to just 2.3 seconds. He continued to set the fastest time in the following three stages and regained the lead from his teammate K.Katajamaki.
On the final stage J.Salo pushed hard, increased his lead to 15.2 seconds and went on to win the rally. This was his second consecutive victory. "If last year I led from the start to the finish line, this time I really had to fight for the victory. This tastes really good", Salo said from the podium. K.Katajamaki finished in second and J.Ketomaa in third.
Finnish Formula 1-drivers Kimi Raikkonen, Mika Hakkinen, Mika Salo and JJ Lehto took part to the Arctic Lapland Rally as well. JJ Lehto (Mitsubishi) was ninth in the overall standings. Raikkonen (Fiat, S2000) was 13th and Hakkinen (Mitsubishi) 19th. Mika Salo (Mitsubishi) retired for the technical failure.
The next round of the FRC will be held in Mikkeli from the 21st February. |
