Finnish championship at Kauhajoki

Arola and Kokko bagging victories, Rally superstar Mikko Hirvonen in B final.

Round 4 of the Finnish Rallycross Championship took place on Saturday July 16 at the Sotkan Moottoristadion of Kauhajoki and featured the first ever true Rallycross participation of WRC ace Mikko Hirvonen who eventually made it to the B final, where he retired early and became eighth overall. The Ford factory Rally driver, who competed in an ex-Rustam Minnikhanov ERC Fiesta Mk6 that was later used in Finland by Finn Martti Simonen, had his fun during the event, but was missing experience with the 530+bhp Supercar as well as of the style of racing with several cars starting at a time.

While Matti Alamäki protégé Sami Pakkala crashed his Honda Civic VIII Supercar early out of the event in a big style shunt Mazda RX-7 campaigner Harri Arola eventually claimed his first Supercar victory of the year. The A final of the SRC class was won by Jari-Pekka Kokko (Ford Escort VII) who had already scored victory in the first round of the series in May at Kouvola. Set Promotion’s Juspe Leppihalme took also part in the so-called ‘Sambacross’ event at Kauhajoki, this time racing a SuperNational Volvo S40 I rather than his usual Super1600 Renault Clio II, to finish the SRC B final on seventh place overall.

• Supercar – Final Results:
• 1. Harri Arola (FIN) Mazda RX-7 (with Nissan engine!)
• 2. Janne Kanerva (FIN) Škoda Fabia I
• 3. Jukka Lautamäki (FIN) Ford Focus I
• 4. Teemu Pätsi (FIN) Ford Focus I
• 5. Atro Määttä (FIN) Ford Focus I
• 6. Ari Perkiömäki (FIN) Ford Fiesta VI
• 8. Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) Ford Fiesta VI
• SRC – Final Results:
• 1. Jari-Pekka Kokko (FIN) Ford Escort VII
• 2. Joni-Pekka Rajala (FIN) Ford Escort VII
• 3. Tuomas Seppä (FIN) Volvo S40 I
• 4. Ville Mikkola (FIN) BMW E36 Coupé
• 5. Juha-Pekka Mattila (FIN) BMW E46
• 6. Topi Kannonlahti (FIN) BMW E46 Coupé
• 7. Jussi-Petteri Leppihalme (FIN) Volvo S40 I

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