Lindholm forced to retire from his leading position: ”My own mistake”
Team GRX’s Emil Lindholm and Mikael Korhonen, who were leading FRC-series second to last event Oili Jalonen-rally in Laitila, had to retire from rally’s second to last special stage after driving off the road.
After six driven special stages Lindholm was in the lead with 9,3 seconds to the next driver. The second to last special stage was the Volkswagen driving twosome’s last one of this rally.
”Pretty foolish thing. It was my own mistake. On one of the left-hand turns the car just started sliding and I couldn’t keep it on the inside of the turn. We hit a rock and the car turned over”, Lindholm says.
”For this turn my driving line was wrong. On the first time driving this special stage through today I was able to drive without lifting the gas pedal. Second time our car started to turn nicely but for some reason the front of the car straightened out and we went off. That was it for us”, disappointed Lindholm tells.
Lindholm’s retirement also meant they lost their chances to be Finnish Rally Champions. On the last FRC-rally Lindholm still has a theoretical chance to stand on the second highest spot on the podium.
”We were fighting to be Finnish Rally Champions. Silver or bronze it really doesn’t matter but we are not going to give up until the end. Of course I can always say I should’ve driven slower but that’s easy to say afterwards. I am very eager to go forward with my driving career but this reminded me I should have more patience to learn”, Lindholm says.
The Finnish Rally Championship-series final rally is driven in Salo and Turku area on 27.-28. of September.
Unofficial SM1-class standings 6/7:
1. Juha Salo 106
2. Teemu Asunmaa 102
3. Emil Lindholm 67
