Team GRX’s Emil Lindholm and Reeta Hämäläinen will take the positive experiences of the WRC Rally Sweden to the Kuopio ABC Pitkälahti Finnish Rally Championship event. “We’re trying our best and try and drive an intact rally,” Lindholm sums up.
 

The last Finnish Rally Championship points of the winter season are up for grabs next weekend in Kuopio. Emil Lindholm and Reeta Hämäläinen, who are second in the SM1 class after two rounds, will compete with TGS Worldwide's Škoda Fabia Rally2 on the challenging roads of Kuopio and Tuusniemi for the first time.

”We hope that the weather will favor us all and there will be sunny forecast with a below freezing temperatures thisweekend. It would be more fun to drive and for the audience to watch the rally. The sun is already warming enough to melt the ice and snow during the day, even in below freezing temperatures”, Lindholm says.

”I have never driven a rally in Kuopio so the roads in the area are new to us and it brings a nice variation to the Finnish Championship calendar. Before the rally I will run a shakedown test where we will check that everything is working, and at the same time get a good feeling for the studded tires used in Finland”, Lindholm tells.

There are more than 100 km of special stages on the route around Northern Savonia. Lindholm starts for the weekend with a starting number 

”Last weekend we drove in Sweden on a studded tire with a 7 mm stud protrusion. In Finland, it is possible to drive with an 8 or 9 mm studs. We need to think about our tire choices but only after we have seen the condition of the roads”, Lindholm recalls.

In Kuopio, there are eight studded tires available for the competition for each car. The competitors have to drive more than 50 special stage kilometers with one set of tires, which is a lot even for Pirelli.

”We have a full trust for the tires and we also got an OK starting number this time. We’re going to  take the good driving feel and groove that we got from the fastest time of the WRC Rally Sweden’s Power Stage with us. We’re trying our best to drive an intact rally”, Lindholm sums up.

The third and last round of the Finnish Rally Championship series, the Finnish Championship Rally ABC Pitkälahti Kuopio, will be driven next Friday and Saturday in Kuopio and Tuusniemi. The rally’s competition center is located in the Heinjoki motor sports center in Hiltulanlahti, Kuopio, where the super special stages of the competition are also driven on Friday and Saturday.

The weekend’s rally route includes a total of nine special stages (108.23 km). The competition will start on Friday, March 4 at 18:00 in Kuopio. There are two special stages (17.16 km) in the evening program. The rally will continue on Saturday, March 5 at 8:30 p.m. During the day, the competitors will drive seven special stages and visit the Heinjoki Motorsports Center twice. The first competitors are expected to the finish line at Kuopio Market starting from 17:43.
 

FRC points SM1 2/7 rounds:
1. Mikko Heikkilä Škoda 38
2. Emil Lindholm Škoda 37
3. Egon Kaur (EE) Volkswagen 35
4. Teemu Asunmaa Škoda 29
5. Juha Salo Škoda 28