Juha Salo wins overall and SM(FRC)2 in Vaakuna Ralli in Mikkeli
Juha Salo has won the second round of the Finnish Rally Championship in Mikkeli. Joni Nikko was second both overall and in SM(FRC)2. The difference between Salo and Nikko was 15,2 seconds. Third overall was Ari Vihavainen, who was 45 seconds behind the winner. The win was especially important to Salo, who had retired in Arctic Lapland Rally.
- Of course the feeling is good after the rally now that we have won. The stages were pretty worn out towards the end so I had to try and keep the car in the ruts. We didn´t have any particular problems over the weekend except for the slight difficulties with finding the rhythm in the beginning. The win tastes especially sweet after our retirement in Arctic Lapland Rally, Salo rejoiced having reached the finish.
In addition to being third overall, Vihavainen took the victory in SM1 with a 18,3 seconds gap over Karl Kruuda from Estonia. Third in SM1 was Veli-Pekka Karttunen.
In SM2, third after Juha Salo and Joni Nikko was Teemu Asunmaa, who was eventually 11,5 seconds behind Salo.
In SM3, Joonas Lindroos took his first FRC win with a 12,4 seconds gap over Henri Haapamäki, who was second. Third was Teemu Suninen, who lost almost a minute to class winner Lindroos. From the points standing perspective, there were significant retirements in SM3: Jaro Kinnunen and Samuli Vuorisalo had to retire. Kinnunen had a puncture on SS5 and Vuorisalo suffered a technical fault after SS2.
In SM4, Jarkko Savolainen won and beat Ville Hautamäki by 22,1 seconds. Third was Joose Kojo, who lost 36,9 seconds to Savolainen.
