8.3.2008 - Jussi Välimäki victorious in Tahko SPA SM-rally - Careers best ever result in Finnish Rally Championship wasn't easy

Reighning Finnish Rally Champion and STC-Meat rally team driver Jussi Välimäki with his co-driver Jarkko Kalliolepo showed their best skills in third round of Finnish Rally Championship event which was rallied in the region of Nilsiä. Välimäki rallied with group-A Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII rally car. After eight special stages and 113 special stage kilometres he was eventually 11,4 seconds faster than current group-A Championship leader Ford Focus RS WRC'01 rally driver Ari Vihavainen. Finnish Rally Championship event overall victory was first for Välimäki in his 15 years rally career.

Third and final winter round of Finnish Rally Championship was driven in most picturesque winter weather. Few degrees of celius, high snow banks and bright sunshine gave excellent circumstanses for the drivers to measure their speed for eachothers. Eight special stages prooved to be very demanding as lots of rally drivers went off during the rally. Also group-N Championship leader Juha Salo was forced to retire due off. As the cat was out from the game, mouses could jump on the floor. Välimäki was very satisfied for his excellent rally day.

- My first overall victory in Finnish Rally Championship has kept me waiting from year to another. In several occasions it has been in my grasp but somehow everytime we've lost it and become second. Now it eventually happened and I'm very happy for it, told reigning Finnish Rally Champion Jussi Välimäki.

Välimäki was complitely surprised of his new engine

Three weeks ago in second round of Finnish rally Championship Välimäki was forced to retire due engine failure. After the rally the engine wizard AM Works Juha Martikainen showed his skills and made a new spec group-A engine for Välimäki to Tahko SPA SM-rally. Also Bigem damper engineer Marko Rämänen provided new spec dampers for Välimäki. These two elements was the key for success.

- We had pre-rally tests on Thursday at the region of Jämsä. During the tests we had an impression that the new engine was out of power. Therefore I started the event with lack of confidence. However at the end of first and second stage I was complitely surprised because we were leading the rally. Apparently I got an incorrect feeling of my engine and its' updated qualities. Simply I couldn't utilize wider RPM area the engine provided me, told one fastest special stage time driven Välimäki

- Every member of STC Meat rally team made an incredible work. Therefore me and Jarkko could rally a trouble-free event. Only bad thing is that we and many of my fellow competitors lost lots of bumpers to the stages. It was very nice to end the winter season with a victory as we could reduce the points gap for the leader Ari Vihavainen, told two group-A victories in three rallies taken Välimäki.

Finnish Rally Championship is now heading for three monts spring pause. Engines will be re-started on 14th-15th June at next round of Finnish Rally Championship.

Tahko SPA SM-rally final results, top-3:
1. Jussi Välimäki & Jarkko Kalliolepo, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII gr.A, 1.06.45;5
2. Ari Vihavainen & Asko Sairanen, Ford Focus RS WRC'01 gr.A, +11.4 sec
3. Jari Ketomaa & Miika Teiskonen, Subaru Impreza WRX STi 2008, gr.N, +16,0 sec

Finnish Rally Championship standings after 3/7 rounds, group-A, top-3:
1. Ari Vihavainen, Ford Focus RS WRC'01, 44 points
2. Jussi Välimäki, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII, 39 points
3. Janne Tuohino, Subaru Impreza WRC'03, 25 points