Riku Tahko sixth in the Kuopio FRC rally
The second Finnish Rally Championship series rally of the season was held on Saturday in the Kuopio region. Riku Tahko placed 6th in the SM1.
The Ralli SM series continued over the weekend on the roads of the Kuopio FRC Rally. All eight special stages of the competition were run on Saturday, and the recce of the competition was on Friday. Riku Tahko's and co-driver Sami Ryynänen's pre-event tests, were run on Thursday.
- Various small things were tried in the tests to make the car even better than in the Arctic rally. However, we returned to largely the same setups as where we left off in previous rally. However, the car feels easy and logical to drive, Tahko described the preliminary feelings of the competition.
In the Kuopio FRC Rally, two loops of four special stages were run, with a service break in between. After the first four special stages, Riku Tahko and Sami Ryynänen were in seventh place in the SM1 class. The best special stage position was sixth.
- Although we were sixth in the first special stage, we were a little too cautious at the beginning. However, the drive on the big road went well and the time was good. On the second stage, I made a mistake at the start, when I tried to start without too much wheelspin in place. An overly cautious start backfired and the car stalled.
In the last four stages, Tahko was sixth three times and seventh once. In the final results, Tahko was then sixth in the SM1 class.
- The day's special stages went relatively clean throughout, and we can be satisfied with that. Of course, there is always room for improvement in driving, but progress has been made. The fact that our performance level does not collapse, even when the stage is not completely successful, is especially indicative of that.
The rally championship series continues at the beginning of March at the championship rally in Jyväskylä.
Photo: Hannu Rainamo
