Rally Finland TV

PHOTOS

Preparation Photos
Action  Photos - now available!

LINKS
Results During Rally
Rally Web Site
WRC Web Site
BHP Motorsport
 

Onboard videos of Rally Finland below:

SS1 - Killeri
SS4 - Mokkipera

Enjoy!

Onboard videos highlights of Rally Finland below:

Rally Finland 2009 Highlights

Enjoy!

The Kickastra Rally Team
 

For the Bajan-based team members, the journey to the forests started with the overnight flight to Gatwick from Barbados on Thursday. A 2.5 hour train ride to Luton airport and a six hour wait for the connecting flight to Hamburg saw us united with the German arm of the team late on Friday evening. Saturday morning saw the start of preparations proper. Sorting of safety gear for the rally and relevant literature and paper work took first priority. Next was the packing of the rally car, recce car and the general transport car. We would be taking three cars on the ferry from Travemunde, Germany to Helsinki, Finland.

 The OPC would be loaded on a trailer and towed by the recce car - also an Astra and driven by Jonathan, while the general transport car, Alecia's BMW would carry the rest of the crew. We had a total of 14 tyres for the rally as well as 4 DOT and E marked tyres for the co-driving experience and recce to be packed. Also were two boxes of spares courtesy of Tobias from Autoscharf, a pair of bottom arms for the front suspension, a spare AVO insert for the front, a complete pair of front struts as used in Wales Rally GB in 2007, spare rear shocks, a box of assorted bits and pieces including engine mounts, clutch cable, sensors, radiator hoses and other items, a spare radiator, collapsible chairs, a collapsible table, impact gun, cordless drill and a few other basic tools. On top of this were clothes for 5 for 8 days. Needless to say, packing took a bit of ingenuity and time.

The convoy left Blickstedt late Saturday night for the ferry at Travemunde - a 1.5 hour drive away. Boarding was simple and painless and saw our recce car with trailer in tow parked next to the Turkish Fiesta ST Rally team in the spacious hold of the Finnlines Ferry. The difference in budget was quite apparent. They had a double deck transporter with the two rally cars on the top deck and the two recce cars below, one of which was fully caged (spare car maybe?) while the other have of the rig was almost the size of a 20 foot container and carried all the spares/tyres etc. The accommodations on the ferry were not unlike that of a cruise ship and indeed, was very comfortable and the food onboard was excellent. The ferry traveled across the Baltic sea, taking about 27 hours to make the crossing. Leaving Germany at about 3am on Sunday morning meant a 7am arrival in Helsinki on Monday.

From here was a 3.5 hour drive to the Rally House - a large house that Jonathan's Finnish friend Jouni had found for use a mere 7 minutes drive from the service park. En route though was a stop at a test track at Jamsa where we would be conducting a co-driving experience event. This consisted of a few circuits of the approximately 2.8km test track to test the intercom and helmet setup we would be using as well as to wet the co-driving  appetites of a number of visiting people. All went well, and it was also noted that the new suspension fitted to the OPC was a huge improvement over that used in Wales in 2007. The co-driving experience over, it was on to Jyvaskyla and the rally house. Here we met Jukka, owner of the house and an avid rally fan himself. Indeed, he ended up out in the forests watching some stages during the course of the rally. By this time it was nearly 6pm and time was fast approaching for the administrative checks to be done at Rally HQ. We took a quick drive down to the Rally HQ and completed the checks in no time. It was here that we also passed on the Barbados flag to the organisers. They had contacted me in Barbados and asked if we could bring a Barbados flag with us to be flown with the flags of participating nations since they were unable to find one in Finland! Tomorrow, Tuesday would be the first day of the recce, and we spent some time rechecking the recce schedule.

For the first day of recce, we decided to get an early start to maximise the time we would have to complete the pace-notes. Translated, this meant to leave home before the crack of dawn and be first on the stages. In real terms, we left home at 5:45am and arrived at the start of the first stage at 6:30am and yes, we were first to arrive at the stage. Even before the start marshall! The first car (us) moved off at 8am sharp. Unlike when we recce'd Rally GB, in Finland they did not set off cars at 1 minute intervals - rather, they set them off as they arrived. Although in practice it meant that recce cars would frequently pass one another on a given stage, it also helped to speed the entire process. In our case, we left the start line of the first stage as soon as it opened, stopped for gas once during the day and twice for very brief liquid disposal purposes and clocked in to the second running of the last stage of the day 9 minutes before it was due to close. An incredibly tight schedule, especially considering that on the transits between the stages we were right on the speed limit the entire time, and averaging around 70kph on each recce pass (remember that maximum speed on the stages during the recce is 80kph).

The other surprising thing with the Rally Finland recce is that the gravel roads being used are actually public roads, and they are not closed during the recce! We would frequently meet cars and trucks going the opposite way. Many houses are right alongside the road and there were a couple of places where the rally route passed between the main house and an out building. Even the start of the first stage on day 1 of the recce was at the end of someone's driveway! Day 2 of the recce included the Super Special at Killeri, and again the pace was punishing. We completed our allowed 2 passes of each stage within the allotted time, but only by virtue of pushing hard on the gravel sections of the transits.

Thursday morning dawned on an already tired crew. With the two hectic days of recce finally over, today would be scrutineering and final setup of the service park as well as the arrival of the German contingent of Tobias, Tomas and Danny. The car had been stickered with the Rally Finland signage on Wednesday night, and the only potential scrutineering issue - a faulty external fire extinguisher trigger switch - had been resolved on Tuesday night. The OPC was packed with all the safety gear and tools and spare tyres we would be running with and we set off for the service park to check out our spot. Jouni was down there along with two Finnish mechanics who had supplied the tools and jacks we would need for the rally. Our tent was most distinctive being the only domed tent in the service park. At least we would not get lost!

Next was scrutineering. One of the requirements was to provide locking wire for sealing the gearbox and engine. The engine bit was easy as the sealing wire was still in place from Wales Rally GB 2007. The gearbox required a bit more thought since we did not want to have to remove the sump guard for the checking of and sealing of the gearbox. We decided on using a casting on one half of the box and drilling a bolt from the other half to loop the wire through. This was accepted by the scrutineers and made life easier for us. All our safety gear was passed without issue, but they did mention that the signage on the windscreen banner was more than 10cm in height. This had us stumped as there was no mention in any of the literature about this. Apparently it is something found in general prescriptions. We received our pass sticker and returned to the service park. The OPC was left there under the tent and we drove back to the rally house to await the notification of our start time for the Super Special. Shortly after returning home we received a call from Jouni at the service park to say that the scrutineers had dropped by regarding the windscreen banner and would be back in 20 minutes expecting the required changes to be completed. The Ravensden logo on the windscreen banner measured more than the regulation 10cm tall. A quick fix with white duct tape was called for. The actual lettering was within limits, but the background exceeded their requirements, so a bit of screening of the background kept the scruts at bay and our sponsor's logo prominently visibly.

All updates and start times were to be sent via text message, and after the scrutineering issue was taken care of, we were all sat around the rally house expectantly waiting for the message tone from the phone. Unsure as to how things were to be run, we were speculating that we might start our run at Killeri as late as 9:15pm.  Minds were set at ease, as well as into a frenzy when the text message showed our start time as 18:40 hrs. They would be running the cars in reverse seeding order, and by virtue of being the second last car in the rally, and that Killeri was run with two cars at a time, it meant that we would be the opening act for Rally Finland 2009!!!Jonathan and I suited up and headed down to the service park while Dominic and Jouni went to Killeri to watch the action. By the time we reached the time control at Killeri I was more nervous than at any other event I could remember. I really didn't want to make a balls up of it in front of thousands of people and, as I was to later find out, on live TV. We were paired with car 124, a very aggressive sounding Toyota Yaris. I needn't have worried as we won our matchup comfortably and moved to the top of the leader board of Rally Finland 2009. Not a bad opening act for a couple of Bajan lads. From here it was back to parc ferme for the car. On returning to the rally house we met up with Tobias and crew as well as Colwyn, with only Simon Wallis un-accounted for since he was due to arrive shortly after midnight. As it turned out, we were all up and about when he showed up - the text message with our start time for the second day only came through about 11:45pm.
 

In August 2008, the Kickastra Team was set to repeat its entry to the Wales Rally GB.  The sponsors were behind the team, the entry form and logistics were all set, and then at the last moment, personal commitments intervened and we had to abandon the mission.  Following this, the question was asked "What next?".  Our focus then turned to trying to combine an alternative WRC rally with a family vacation.  In 2006, Jackie and Adrian were present, in 2007 it was Dominic and Adrian, and this time we wanted the entire team to be at Ground Zero for the event.  One possibility was Rally Finland, which fell neatly in Summer Vacation.

By this time, we had talked to our friend Jouni casually about low-budget service and accommodation possibilities in Finland, and the Rally Finland dates seemed to quite handily align with Summer Vacation. Rally Finland it was then!

Organizing an entry into a WRC rally is no easy task - especially in a small essentially two-man organizing team with Jouni as the "Finnish connection".  Although the Kickastra Team had done the Wales Rally GB in 2006 and 2007, the task was no smaller.  The FIA rules constantly change, sometimes multiple times in a year.  Jonathan painstakingly reviewed all relevant regulations and made necessary changes to the car preparation, such as adding seat belt cutters, acquiring HANS devices (mandatory for all teams in WRC from 2009), installing homologated seats and ensuring the shock absorbers complied with new Group N regulations among others.  Coinciding with these preparations, Tobias Scharf of Rallyeteam Autoscharf extended a generous invitation for the Kickastra Team to enter a rally alongside his Opel Astra OPC Turbo.  The Sachsen Rally, an all-tarmac round of the German Rally Championship, was a mere hour from Autoscharf's headquarters in Lauter, Germany, and the schedule was perfect for this to be a "shakedown" for the car and getting used to the HANS devices, and with sufficient time to correct any defects or damage prior to the Rally Finland.

With the successful Rally Sachsen under our belt, focus now returned to Rally Finland.  The team had a wealth of contacts in the UK in case anything was needed or forgotten - Finland was uncharted waters - every nut, bolt and washer required needed to be accounted for.  Extensive lists of tools, spares and supplies were compiled many months in advance.  Trips to scrapyards were made to secure spares - even the recce car, which is an Astra, was assessed for which parts are common to the OPC (such as the fuel pump, bumpers, body panels, etc.) and included on the "spares list"!  Then there was the itinerary, service teams in both Germany and Finland to arrange and coordinate. 

The painstaking hours spent coordinating paid off.  The rally turned out to be a flawless execution of extensive planning spearheaded by Jonathan and Jouni.
 

Some action photos are now online - see Action  Photos.
 

The Bajan crew of Adrian and Jonathan Linton completed Neste Oil Rally Finland on their first attempt of the iconic event this past weekend.
Finishing 52nd overall and possibly 8th in group, the Lintons described the rally as "... a total pleasure. It is our first time here and only our third WRC event."
After a minor mistake on SS20 where they overshot a junction due to what they said was the "Very loose" surface the team opted to "keep our speed down ... to get to the finish."
Susan Pape of Ravensden PLC in the UK, one of the teams sponsors said "Just shows what can be done with a production car, a lot of work and a dedicated team. Barry and I are proud to be associated with the Kickastra team. They are an inspiration to you all about what can be acheived with a limited budget and true determination."
 

Link to story published in the Barbados Advocate.
 

In the meantime, we have uploaded some Preparation Photos.

The Neste Oil Rally Finland organizers have posted the official list of accepted entries and the Kickastra Team is pleased to confirm that their entry has been accepted.  The team will be car #123, second from last in the start order, on Thursday July 29 at the start of the SS1 Killeri Super Special Stage.  The team will be in good company, as in car #70, making his WRC debut, ex-F1 driver Kimi Räikkönen is entered in a Fiat Grande Punto S2000 car.