The third round of the Finnish Rally Championship (FRC) was held around the Joensuu area in eastern Finland from the 6th - 7th March. This was the debut rally for J.Salo and M.Stenberg's new TYPE Gr.N equipped Lancer Evo.X. After a thorough testing session with TEIN engineers, the team was prepared for the rally.
J.Salo & M.Stenberg had a great start by finishing in 2nd place in SS1, just 0.5 seconds behind J.Valimaki. J.Salo’s teammate K.Katajamaki in the TYPE Gr.N equipped Evo.IX was 0.7 seconds behind in 3rd. In SS2 J.Salo had some gear trouble and lost 2 positions while K.Katajamaki took advantage and finished 0.19 seconds behind the leader in 2nd overall position. But drama struck K.Katajamaki in SS3 as he drove slightly off course and lost over a minute and several positions. J.Salo continued to perform strongly to finish the SS in 3rd. He felt a little understeer during day 1 and TEIN engineers made minor adjustments to give more grip up front.
In SS4 disaster struck as J.Salo lost his reverse gear, but didn’t have enough time to replace the transmission without a risking a penalty. He was able to keep the pace up and finish SS4 in 3rd overall position, while K.Katajamaki finished in 22nd place. In SS5 J.Salo felt good with the car’s handling and was able to pick up the pace even further to finish in 2nd. But more transmission problem struck in SS6, resulting in a spin. But that wasn’t all. Snow filled the air filter reducing the cars power output. Before the incident, J.Salo was the fastest car in the stage so even with the problems he still managed to finish in 3rd. K.Katajamaki made a brave charge back up the order to finish the stage in 8th place.
Unfortunately more disaster struck as J.Salo hit a snow bank! Without the use of his reverse gear and no spectators around to help, it left no options but to retire from the rally. K.Katajamaki, on the other hand, suffered some problems early on in the rally, but made a strong come back to finish the rally in 7th overall position.
The debut for the Lancer Evo.X was not the best result but valuable data was gained and J.Salo and the team look to take charge from the next round in June, so please look forward to more FRC action soon! |
