The second round of the Finnish Rally Championship was held from the 20^th - 21^st of February in Mikkeli, south eastern Finland. TEIN Type Gr.N drivers J.Salo and K.Katajamaki had an excellent start to the 2009 season with a 1-2 finish in the first round and they were both looking for another repeat at Mikkeli.

 

On day 1, J.Salo had a great start to the rally finishing SS1 with a mere 0.05second lead over rival J.Ketomaa, who was driving on his home turf. K.Katajamaki followed closely behind in 3^rd overall place. J.Salo continued his efforts and finished SS2 in 1st place, with J.Ketomaa closing in. K.Katajamaki had some trouble and dropped down the order to 9^th position.

 

Both drivers were looking to push hard in SS3 but the unfortunate happened! J.Salo suffered from an oil leak just after the start. The leak was bad enough to force him to retire. "It was three kilometers from the start of SS3 when we observed that everything is not okay with the car. There was the oil leak in the car, which nearly caused us a big disaster. The oil was splashing on the hot turbo and the car caught fire. We had to stop right away", Salo explained.

 

J.Salo was driving confidently until the disaster happened. "The car felt very fast and I was satisfied with my driving as well. The retirement was quite a disappointment but that kind of technical problem doesn't give any signs beforehand. I can't say yet what was the real reason for the oil leak. We had a new engine in our car" commented J.Salo. K.Katajamaki finished SS3 in 5^th place making up four positions and was pushing ever harder until he went off in SS4 ending his rally.

 

This rally was a special rally for J.Salo and his crew because it was the last rally for his Lancer Evo IX. J.Salo won the overall championship last year in the car and was sad that the last rally had to end like this. "Evo IX didn't deserve this kind of end for its´ rally history" J.Salo said.

 

The next round will be held in Joensuu from 7^th March and it will also be the debut rally for J.Salo and M.Stenberg’s new Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. Please look forward to the action in the new car!!