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Vol.12: 13, September 2006

George Goes to Finland - and comes away with a story to tell

STI Group N Project General Manager George Donaldson recently spent the weekend in Finland on that country's biggest rally of the year - Rally Finland. The Scandinavian country, known for its legions of world-beating rally drivers, did not disappoint, the visit showcasing two local young hotshoes destined for greatness.

George Donaldson:
"Finland is an incredibly important place for rallying in general. While not the birthplace of the sport, it's kind of its spiritual home in terms of there being so many top drivers coming from the country. It's a very, very competitive place to be. Rally Finland gives us a bit of a window into the faster end of the market because the fastest average rallying speed in the world is in Finland. So we know we've got to stay competitive there to keep all of our Group N customers everywhere in the world competitive.

"Obviously also, we have our very important partner here, Tommi Makinen Racing. Tommi had a number of cars running in the rally, we also had a number of Prodrive cars running, and we had seven or eight grassroots entrants as well so it was a very strong outing for us. Also, it was important for us to gauge what was going on.

"As the event got underway, straight away we had three top drivers, including Oscar Svedlund and Anton Alen (son of legendary Marrku Alen, six-time 1,000 Lakes Rally winner) running at the front. It looked as if it was going to be a tough battle. But right out of the box, Oscar Svedlund in the Tommi Makinen-built car was quickest on the very, very quick Killary stage - the trotting track circuit. That was fantastic. He was the quickest Group N driver on that stage.

"Patrik Flodin very nearly won the Group N category here in Finland last year in his Mitsubishi, but for a broken gearbox. He's switched to SUBARU this year, and has had fabulous performances throughout this season - incredible performances! He of course is supported by the manager sporting group that Petter Solberg is involved with, to support young drivers - so he's sort of a Petter Petter protégé.

PCWRC fans can expect intense excitement as the rest of the field try to make up lost ground on Nasser in Japan and Australia. The massive early-season margin the Qatari has built up however, coupled with his legendary finishing consistency, will make it a difficult task indeed for even the very best driver to accomplish.

"There were also a very large number of fantastic Group N drivers driving Mitsubishis. These are local Finnish guys that have been doing incredibly well in the local championship this year.

"It was a great start for us, and we thought things were looking good. Patrik and Anton were also right in there so we were thinking: 'We have a chance here.'

"That was Thursday night, the first Special Stage. Unfortunately on SS2, (Friday morning) Oscar made a small mistake and retired from the rally. The mantle was then firmly and squarely taken up by Anton and Patrik, who proceeded to dominate Group N throughout the event, and were rarely more than one or two seconds apart overall throughout the whole rally, except for the last few stages. Basically, we were getting a situation where on a 40-km stage, they were 0.8 seconds apart! That's an incredible performance - absolutely amazing.

"Those two guys just walked away from the opposition. They are two young drivers that have very, very serious talents. I came away from Finland feeling: 'My God, we've got the two next championship drivers running at the front here.' These guys ended up 11th and 12th overall. That is just an amazing result. They were challenging many of the World Rally cars, just a few seconds behind them on each stage - from the WR cars that were seeded with P2 (priority 2) drivers.

"These two guys aren't even seeded - running numbers like 60-something and they are, in some cases, actually beating the P2 drivers. It was the most incredible thing - a quantum performance by the pair of them.

"Make no mistake: Our car is good - and we're happy with it, but those two drivers are exceptional talents - Anton Alen and Partik Flodin.

"They were both driving Prodrive cars, and obviously Anton Alen was working under his father Markku's wing. He spent many days at Tommi Makinen's school with his father and with Tommi, driving Tommi's school car an unlimited amount to get lots of practice - and tuition of course.

"It's been a remarkable thing for him. What we've seen is a Prodrive car which is fantastic and the Tommi Makinen tuition - and also, Tommi Makinen suspension on the car. A perfect car from Prodrive, perfect suspension from Tommi Makinen - it was a terrific mix!

"All our grass roots competitors did an incredible job - they had a great weekend. Among 10 SUBARU entered cars, 9cars except retired Oscar, we have the sum total of no standard parts being replaced - for the entire length of the rally.

Tommi Makinen Racing set for expansion.

Tommi Makinen Racing is doing very brisk business at the moment, and is in the process of modifications and an expansion on their workshop. This will include an engine dyno, an engine workshop, and general extensions to the working area of the workshop; putting in three additional work bays, expanding the shop assembly preparation area, the fabrication area; and as mentioned earlier, two areas of the engine. They're going to have a dedicated engine build shop (at the moment that's being done in a separate building), and of course, the engine dyno. This will primarily be for development and car running. The expansion is expected to be completed before winter sets in.