Rd.4 of Finnish Rally Championship was held in Valkeakoski between June 5th and 6th. Rd.3 was a bitter experience for J.Salo and his crew, and so they have put all of their effort to polish up their new Lancer Evo X during the break. With their test runs ending with positive results, they are confident with their new setup.
DAY1
J.Salo starts out the day strong and right off the back, he sets the fastest time in SS1. He kept on pushing to maintain his momentum, but things did not turn out the way he anticipated. After finishing SS4, J.Salo was trailing behind J.Ketomaa by 7.3 sec. The situation continued in SS5 and SS6 which covers total of 40km in distance; his driving was too shy and the gap between the lead were to widen.
DAY2
J.Salo gained back his rhythm, and finished 9.7 sec. faster than J.Ketomaa from SS7 to SS9, but he was unable to catch up to the leader and settled for 2nd place.
After the rally, J.Salo comments "We got important kilometers for Lancer Evo X. The car is brand new so we have still lots of things to learn of it. Driving style is the one. Lancer Evo X reacts faster than the previous Lancer Evo. In Valkeakoski some of the stages were quite slippery which made me unreliable feeling. But on the stages where the grip was better, it was much easier to drive". He was not satisfied with the result, but on the other hand, he had positive feelings about his newly developed car.
Rd.5 of Finnish Rally Championship will be held in Kouvola located in southern Finland. We will continue to strive for the championship title, so stay with us to see more action from J.Salo and TYPE Gr.N damper. |
