WRC ra is faste Finl
NEST THAN
Our publication is one of the very few titles that still puts the time and effort into not only providing much needed support and ink to local motorsport, but covers international motorsport too.
As part of this service to our readers we preview the World Rally Championship (WRC) the week before each round takes place somewhere in the world, and then a wrap and results of the same event appears in the main paper on the Monday morning. So from a serious facts and figures point of view, we have your needs covered.
When we received an invite to the WRC Neste Rally Finland as guests of Toyota Gazoo Racing via Toyota South Africa, I jumped at the chance to tick off another bucket list item and have some fun in a town called Jyväskylä (pronounced ‘U-vas-cular’.
An even bigger positive for this weekend was that the team celebrated victory on home soil after Ott Tänak sealed a hugely impressive win by setting the fastest time on the Power Stage. Jari-Matti Latvala clinched third place to give the team a fantastic double podium.
The result moves the Toyota Gazoo World Rally Team to within one point of second place in the manufacturers’ standings and closes the gap to the top to 27 points. In the drivers’ standings, Tänak remains third but has closed up to the top two drivers.
Round nine of the 2018 season will be Rallye Deutschland on August 16 to 19. Three rallies in one on German asphalt: twisting roads through Mosel vineyards, the tough Baumholder military area and the fast country lanes of Saarland, and I can’t wait for the outcome of this one.
But I thought it would be a cool idea to maybe throw some fun facts around about the WRC event in Finland, the cars, the place, the people and the beers, for those of you who maybe don’t follow world rallying seriously or have never been to Finland.
Finland is one of the most sparsely populated countries in Europe, with only about 5.5 million people living in the entire country, and I think I have an idea why. Summer, when temperatures hit the high 20s° Celsius and early 30s° Celsius mark, lasts for what for them feels like only a few weeks at best, then it swings into a very long and dark, snow-covered winter, that gets down into the -20° Celsius zone.
That is a temperature swing of about 50° Celsius, but that does not stop them from enjoying a proper sauna, naked, in the middle of winter, before tucking into
Finland is one of the most sparsely populated countries in Europe, with about only about this number of people living in the entire country.
a good old-fashioned plate of reindeer. Sorry kids, Santa might be a little late delivering your presents this year, but his transport sure tastes good. Reindeer is so common though that we were offered it as an alternative to beef at one of our dinners.
And by the way, when I said naked, I mean it’s not completely uncommon to find somebody taking a gentle stroll out to or from the hotel sauna, through the lobby, without a stitch of clothing on. Or popping up, so to speak, to greet you when found relaxing in the lake on a hot summer’s evening.
Jyväskylä is a city of only about 240 000 people, just North of Helsinki, and I think every person in town, plus a good few other thousand from around the world, were there as we were told there were
I guess being vegan or vegetarian means something else to what it means here. Tuck into the Finnish salad, boys, it tastes a whole lot like steak.