The World Rally Championship heads to Finland this week and to what is regarded as the sport's 'spiritual home'.
The '1000 Lakes' - as it use to be known - takes places in familiar territory, the university town of Jyväskylä that has hosted the event for over 50 years. And the rally's popularity shows no signs of waning with 90 crews entered, a record for the 2009 FIA World Rally Championship season.
Much of the event's popularity stems from its fearsome reputation as one of the fastest and most-challenging rallies in the world. The crowds of fans enjoy gravity defying jumps while the crews have their concentration, precision and sheer bravery tested as they average speeds in excess of 100kph over 345.15kms of hard-packed gravel stages.
Special notes:
Rally Finland is one of the oldest events on the calendar and is fought out on blisteringly fast gravel speed tests.
Finns who nurtured their careers on these types of roads have a clear advantage over 'outsiders' who require several years' experience before they can hope to mount a genuine victory challenge. Only seven non-Finns have won in 58 years.
Such are the speeds that Finland boasts five of the six fastest rallies in WRC history, with the 2005 event topping the all-time list at remarkable average of 122.86kph.
The hard, wide roads are as smooth as a billiard table so it is not a hard rally on machinery. However, it is incredibly difficult from a technical perspective. Awesome stomach-churning jumps frequently hide bends over the crests, so accuracy and delivery of pace notes must be exact and selecting the correct line before 'take-off' ensures maximum pace through the following curves.
FIA World Rally Championship news:
Since Rally Poland there have been a number of developments in the world of the WRC, including rumours linking Sebastien Loeb to a drive with Scuderia Toro Rosso in F1 and most recently the official launch of the 2009 Rally of Great Britain in Cardiff.
In addition a number of ex-WRC stars took part in the Corona Rally Mexico 'Rally of Nations' event, which was won by Spain, thanks to Xavier Pons and Dani Sola. Manfred Stohl took the individual honours there.
The WRC candidate event in Bulgaria also took place, but was sadly stopped after a fatal accident on the seventh stage, which claimed the life of Brian Lavio's co-driver, Flavio Gugelmini.
Meanwhile Marcus Gronholm came second in the Unlimited Class on his debut on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
Pre-event quotes:
Citroen Total WRT:
[Sebastien Loeb, car #1 and Daniel Sordo, car #2]
Sebastien Loeb:
"The way things stand at the moment, it's hard to have a totally free mind, but I feel quite relaxed going to round nine in the championship. It would clearly be more comfortable if we had a lead of, say, 20 points [in the drivers' championship]. That said, we were only three points clear of Mikko before last year's visit. This time, the gap is even narrower, and there are only four more rallies to come this season. As I see it, it's as though the championship will be beginning afresh in Finland, and our only option will be to attack. We will have no other alternative. Our C4 WRC is improving through detail changes at the moment and I know it is competitive on this event. Last year, I had every confidence in my car and that enabled me to push hard from start to finish. It turned out to be a very close fight, and the gap at the finish was less than 10 seconds. If we want to win again this time round, we will need to repeat the same sort of pace."
Dani Sordo:
